186 research outputs found
Technical education and the London county council 1918-1939. A study in course innovation and development
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Our thesis is concerned with the process of course innovation and Development in technical education within the area of the London County Council During the period 1918-39. Although essential, an historical study, the Thesis is intended to be of value in a consideration of future development in Technical education, and in particular in the study of the relationship between Curriculum management and manpower planning. The first part of our thesis describes the institutional structure of the principal sectors of technical education in London and outlines the Type of courses that were available and their general progress during the Interwar years. The second part of our thesis seeks to analyse the background to course innovation and to assess why certain courses were successful and why others were comparative failures. Since the topic is potentially so vast, our thesis has been limited to an identification of major factors, rather than a detailed consideration of each one. Our analysis shows the process of course innovation and development in technical education to have been a highly complex interaction of forces in which the other aspects of the educational structure, including administrative as well as teach1ng institutions, played a vital role. Emphasis has been given to the influence of senior administrative officers within the local I education authority framework. Special mention has been made of the work of the Board of Education and of the limitations of the Board in tailing to establish definite guidelines for course development in technical education. Important factors outside the educational structure have also been considered, including the attitudes of parents and business management to formal technical training
Blueprint Of Services For Lung Cancer
Full text linkPrimary lung cancer is the commonest malignant disease in the developed world, and is the
most prevalent form of cancer among men over 65 years. It continues to rise in those aged
over 75 years. Mortality from lung cancer is increasing in women. The condition still has a
short clinical course and a poor prognosis. The literature is in agreement about the effectiveness
of preventing lung cancer incidence by targeting smoking behaviour, particularly in preventing
young people taking up smoking. There is further consensus about the lack of a population
screening method which can be recommended, and the desirability of detecting non-small cell
lung cancer early enough for surgical intervention. The effectiveness of treatment for advanced
disease is less marked, and it is of concern that many people who present with lung cancer are
unsuitable for surgical intervention. The role of palliative care is critical in this condition and
this care should be introduced early in the interaction between the patient and the services
The development of the British army during the wars with France, 1793-1815
Full text linkThe British Army that fought the engagement at Waterloo in 1815, was outwardly little changed from that which was engaged in the initial campaigns of the Wars, twenty-two years previously. Line upon line of red-coated, musket-armed infantry, manoeuvred as chess pieces across open fields, deciding the issue by volley and bayonet, having spent a hungry night exposed to rain and cold. The cavalry were still beautifully and often impractically clad, and were always seeking the decisive charge, on their unfed and often sickly mounts. The Army's commander still viewed his troops as 'the scum of the earth', who were rarely paid, and predominantly enlisted for life. It would therefore appear that little had altered from 1793 to 1815, and that this will be a study of continuity rather than change. However, this thesis will show that despite outward appearances, the Army that took the field at Waterloo was intrinsically different from the one that entered the conflict in 1793, being modernised in line with other institutions of state, and other European armies. This thesis is first and foremost intended to be a contribution to the history of the British Army from the outbreak of war with Revolutionary France in 1793, to the reduction of the forces after the battle of Waterloo in 1815. It proceeds from an assumption that the understanding of not only that history, but the history of the developing British state, will be significantly advanced through a study of the operation of, and the changes which took place within, the Army during the Wars with France
The development of social legislation for blind or deaf persons in England 1834-1939
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.As indicated by the title the purpose of the thesis is to trace the development of social legislation for blind or deaf persons in England between 1834 and 1939. No attempt is made to deal with assistance whether from statutory or voluntary sources for war blinded or deafened persons. In the first chapter a survey is made of the position of the blind or deaf under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and succeeding Poor Law legislation up to 1919. Chapter two deals with the enquiry into the condition of the blind carried out in 1874-75 by the Charity Organisation Society and the much more comprehensive survey of the state of the blind or deaf made between 1884 and 1888 by the Royal Commission on the Blind, Deaf and Dumb which reported in 1889. The latter enquiry resulted in the passing of the Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act of 1893 and also provided the essential data on which state action for the two disabilities could be based. The third chapter gives an account of the campaign to secure legislation for the blind which culminated in the Blind Persons Act of 1920. How the Blind Persons Act was implemented at the local level and the effect on blind welfare of the work of the Advisory Committee on the Welfare of the Blind and the passing of the Local Government Act of 1929, is the concern of chapter four.
Chapter five describes the events leading up to the enactment of legislation relating to the issue of free dog licences in respect of guide dogs for the blind, concessionary postal rates, reduced fees in respect of wireless receiving licences, and the Blind Voters Act of 1933.
In Chapter six the story of the campaign for legislation for the blind is continued up to the passing of the Blind Persons Act of 1938. The penultimate chapter relates the attempts made to secure legislation provision for the deaf in the form of a Deaf Persons Act broadly similar in scope to the Acts on behalf of the blind. The thesis concludes with a consideration of certain conclusions drawn from the subject matter presented in the preceding chapters
Big Data, Big Libraries, Big Problems?: the 2014 LibTech Anti-talk?
Full text linkThe desire to create automatons is a familiar theme in human history, and during the age of the Enlightenment mechanical automatons became not only an “emblem of the cosmos”, but a symbol of man’s confidence that he would unlock nature’s greatest mysteries and fully harness her power. And yet only a century later, automatons had begun to represent human repression and servitude, a theme later picked up by writers of science fiction. Man’s confidence undeterred, the endgame of the modern scientific and technological mindset, or MSTM, seems to be increasingly coming into view with the rise of “information technology” in general and “Big data” in particular. Along with those who wield them, these can be seen as functioning together as a “mechanical muse” of sorts – surprisingly alluring – and, like a physical automaton can serve as a symbol – a microcosm – of what the MSTM sees (at the very least in practice) as the cosmic machine, our “final frontier”. And yet, individuals who unreflectively participate in these things – giving themselves over to them and seeking the powers afforded by the technology apart from technology’s rightful purposes – in fact yield to the same pragmatism and reductionism those wielding them are captive to. Thus, they ultimately nullify themselves philosophically, politically, and economically – their value increasingly being only the data concerning their persons, and its perceived usefulness. Likewise libraries, the time-honored place of, and symbol for, the intellectual flowering of the individual, will, insofar as they spurn the classical liberal arts (with the idea that things are intrinsically good, and in the case of humans, special as well) in favor of the alluring embrace of MSTM-driven “information technology” and Big data - unwittingly contribute to their irrelevance and demise as they find themselves increasingly less needed, valued, wanted. Likewise for the liberal arts as a whole, and in fact history itself, if the acid of a “science” untethered from what is, in fact, good (intrinsically), continues to gain strengt
Enacting Reasoning-and-Proving in Secondary Mathematics Classrooms through Tasks
Full text linkProof is the mathematical way of convincing oneself and others of the truth of a claim for all cases in the domain under consideration. As such, reasoning-and-proving is a crucial, formative practice for all students in kindergarten through twelfth grade, which is reflected in the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. However, students and teachers exhibit many difficulties employing, writing, and understanding reasoning-and-proving. In particular, teachers are challenged by their knowledge base, insufficient resources, and unsupportive pedagogy.
The Cases of Reasoning and Proving (CORP) materials were designed to offer teachers opportunities to engage in reasoning-and-proving tasks, discuss samples of authentic practice, examine research-based frameworks, and develop criteria for evaluating reasoning-and-proving products based on the core elements of proof. A six-week graduate level course was taught with the CORP materials with the goal of developing teachers’ understanding of what constitutes reasoning-and-proving, how secondary students benefit from reasoning-and-proving, and how they can support the development of students’ capacities to reason-and-prove. Research was conducted on four participants of the course during either their first or second year of teaching. The purpose of the research was to study the extent to which the participants selected, implemented, and evaluated students’ work on reasoning-and-proving tasks. The participants’ abilities were examined through an analysis of answers to interview questions, tasks used in class, and samples of student work, and scoring criteria. The results suggest that: 1.) participants were able to overcome some of the limitations of their insufficient resource by modifying and creating some reasoning-and-proving exercises; 2.) participants were able to maintain the level of cognitive demand of proof tasks during implementation; and 3) participants included some if not all of the core elements of proof in their definition of proof and in their evaluation criteria for student products of reasoning-and-proving products
The vocational curriculum in England 1974-1994 : a socio-historical study of the Business and Technology Education Council's National Diploma in Business and Finance
No full textThe BEC/BTEC National Diploma in Business and Finance was, from the late
1970s to the mid 1990s, a major vocational award in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland. Although the majority of BEC/BTEC students were located
in the further education colleges within the somewhat marginalised postcompulsory
sector, the BEC/BTEC National level curriculum was directly
experienced by hundreds of thousands of students as well as their lecturers,
and indirectly by a range of educational stakeholders including employers
and university tutors coming into contact with former BEC/BTEC students.
Having transformed the rhetoric and substantially altered pedagogic practices
within further education the BTEC National Diploma was beginning to
establish an identity when it was, in effect, superceded by the Advanced
GNVQ in Business. Notwithstanding the significance of BEC/BTEC as a
major awarding body the associated curriculum attracted relatively little
interest from researchers, receiving only a fraction of the attention which has
been attracted by the more recent NVQs and GNVQs. This study is primarily
a curriculum history which aims to provide an account of a curriculum which
was conceived and implemented at a time before policy makers had come to
recognise the value of the post-compulsory sector as an engine for potentially
improving national economic performance, and as a catalyst for the creation
of a culture of life-long learning. The study attempts to theoretically
contextualise the BEC/BTEC curriculum as an important instance of
vocationalism. Ideas drawn from Gramsci, Althusser, Foucault and Lyotard
are utilised in order to provide a critical but multi-perspectival analytical
framework. The study incorporates an outline discussion of vocationalism in
England; an account of the genesis and development of BEC/BTEC as an
institution; an overview of various versions (or "generations") of the
BEC/BTEC National curriculum as well as those which have superceded it
(using course specifications and associated documents); and presents
perceptions of the BEC/BTEC National curriculum drawn from a
questionnaire survey and interviews. The BEC/BTEC National curriculum is
seen as an innovatory curriculum which, for many students, presented
important opportunities to progress. It is suggested, however, that ideological
assumptions implicit in the model of vocationalism as operationalised in late
Twentieth Century capitalism have necessarily emasculated the critical
potential and intellectual integrity of vocational education and training in
England
Corporate environmental performance considerations within bank lending processes : the social construction of risk perception.
Full text linkSIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN013001 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
Bridging the air gap: an information assurance perspective
No full textThe military has 5 domains of operations: Land, Sea, Air, Space and now Cyber. This 5th Domain is a heterogeneous network (of networks) of Communication and Information Systems (CIS) which were designed and accredited to meet Netcentric capability requirements; to be robust, secure and functional to the organisation’s needs. Those needs have changed. In the globalised economy and across the Battlespace, organisations now need to share information. Keeping our secrets, secret has been the watchwords of Information Security and the accreditation process; whilst sharing them securely across coalition, geo-physically dispersed networks has become the cyber security dilemma. The diversity of Advanced Persistent Threats, the contagion of Cyber Power and insecurity of coalition Interoperability has generated a plethora of vulnerabilities to the Cyber Domain. Necessity (fiscal and time-constraints) has created security gaps in deployed CIS architectures through their interconnections. This federated environment for superior decision making and shared situational awareness requires that Bridging the (new capability) Gaps needs to be more than just improving security (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability) mechanisms to the technical system interfaces. The solution needs a new approach to creating and understanding a trusted,social-technical CIS environment and how these (sensitive) information assets should be managed, stored and transmitted. Information Assurance (IA) offers a cohesive architecture for coalition system (of systems) interoperability; the identification of strategies, skills and business processes required for effective information operations, management and exploitation. IA provides trusted, risk managed social-technical (Enterprise) infrastructures which are safe, resilient, dependable and secure. This thesis redefines IA architecture and creates models that recognise the integrated, complex issues within technical to organisational interoperability and the assurance that the right information is delivered to the right people at the right time in a trustworthy environment and identifies the need for IA practitioners and a necessary IA education for all Cyber Warriors
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