Literacity: A multimedia adult literacy package combining NASA technology, recursive ID theory, and authentic instruction theory

An important part of NASA's mission involves the secondary application of its technologies in the public and private sectors. One current application under development is LiteraCity, a simulation-based instructional package for adults who do not have functional reading skills. Using fuzzy logic routines and other technologies developed by NASA's Information Systems Directorate and hypermedia sound, graphics, and animation technologies the project attempts to overcome the limited impact of adult literacy assessment and instruction by involving the adult in an interactive simulation of real-life literacy activities. The project uses a recursive instructional development model and authentic instruction theory. This paper describes one component of a project to design, develop, and produce a series of computer-based, multimedia instructional packages. The packages are being developed for use in adult literacy programs, particularly in correctional education centers. They use the concepts of authentic instruction and authentic assessment to guide development. All the packages to be developed are instructional simulations. The first is a simulation of 'finding a friend a job.

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM

Oral History Interview with Bob Way, December 13, 1984

Interview with college instructor and former member of the North Texas State football team Bob Way from Denton, Texas. In the interview, Way recollects some of his experiences and thoughts while he was a student at the school during the desegregation of athletics

Attitudes versus achievement in pre-service mathematics teacher education

Attitudes are generally regarded as having been learnt and predispose an individual to action that has some degree of response consistency. The significance to pre-service primary teachers is in their influence upon teaching practices. Thus the early school experiences of pre-service teachers influence the formation of attitudes which in turn influence their classroom practices. These attitudes and practices may sometimes be at variance with the main direction of their tertiary teaching methods courses. Thus it is crucial in understanding pre-service teachers that these attitudes are made explicit and examined. In a larger study, pre-service primary teachers in their first mathematics pedagogy subject at the University of Western Sydney completed three surveys: an achievement test of the mathematics they would be expected to teach; a survey of their beliefs about mathematics, mathematics teaching and mathematics learning; and a survey of their attitudes towards mathematics. This paper only reports the data from the achievement test and the attitude survey, the relationships between these two constructs and the possible implications for teacher education

Mathematical attitudes, beliefs and achievement in pre-service mathematics teacher education

This article reports on a study focused upon 83 pre-service primary teachers in their first mathematics pedagogy subject at the University of Western Sydney. They completed three surveys: an achievement test of the mathematics they would be expected to teach; a survey of their beliefs about mathematics, mathematics teaching and mathematics learning; and a survey of their attitudes towards mathematics. The experiences and beliefs of pre-service teachers influence the formation of attitudes and these, in turn, influence their classroom practices and beliefs. These beliefs, attitudes and practices may sometimes be at variance with the main direction of their tertiary teaching methods courses. Thus, it is crucial in assisting pre-service teachers to understand their own beliefs, attitudes and practices, and that these are made explicit and examined. This article reports the data from the achievement test, belief survey and the attitude survey, and investigates the relationships between these data. The results from this study show some connections, although relatively weak, among the three constructs and lead the authors to speculate on possible reasons for these

Mathematical beliefs and achievement of pre-service primary teachers

Pre-service primary teachers in their first mathematics pedagogy subject at the University of Western Sydney completed three surveys: an achievement test of the mathematics they would be expected to teach; a survey of their beliefs about mathematics, mathematics teaching and mathematics learning; and a survey of their attitudes towards mathematics. this paper reports the data from the achievement test and the beliefs survey, and investigates the relationships between these

Shared Print Monographs: Making It Work

To date, shared print programs have focused largely on journals. Initiatives from WEST, CIC, ASERL and others have demonstrated the savings, efficiency and collection security possible through structured collaboration