Curriculum theory, curriculum policy and the problem of ill-disciplined thinking

This paper examines the implications of policy fracture and arms length governance within the decision making processes currently shaping curriculum design within the English education system. In particular it argues that an unresolved ‘ideological fracture’ at government level has been passed down to school leaders whose response to the dilemma is distorted by the target-driven agenda of arms length agencies. Drawing upon the findings of a large scale on-line survey of history teaching in English secondary schools, this paper illustrates the problems that occur when policy making is divorced from curriculum theory, and in particular from any consideration of the nature of knowledge. Drawing on the social realist theory of knowledge elaborated by Young (2008), we argue that the rapid spread of alternative curricular arrangements, implemented in the absence of an understanding of curriculum theory, undermines the value of disciplined thinking to the detriment of many young people, particularly those in areas of social and economic deprivation.

Epic Sea Battle at Night: a Revolutionary Play with the Economic Thinking of Milton Friedman

The play Epic Sea Battle at Night was originally staged in 1967, to commemorate two of China’s People’s Liberation Army’s military triumphs over the Taiwanese navy two years previously. Produced at the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the play is an example of the exploitation of the arts as an ideological instrument, celebrating military heroism and political conviction. Stills from the play were included in, China Pictorial 11, an English language propaganda pamphlet that was distributed to Western Imperialists in order to educate them in Maoist policy. Today, these images are clear representations of ideology. More than forty years after the Cultural Revolution, the ideology under which we live, neo-liberal late-capitalism, deliberately shirks from such blatant displays of propaganda. We have supposedly the freedom to believe whatever we like in a post-ideological age, and yet core beliefs about meritocracy, individualism and competitiveness frequently go unchallenged. By juxtaposing the visual language of ideology with the text of the capitalist manifesto, the re-enactment of a scene from Epic Sea Battle at Night harnesses the aesthetics of the past so as to allow us to reconsider the alleged neutrality of the present. The design of the stage, the positioning of the actors, costumes and props of the current production closely resembled those documented in China Pictorial 11, yet the actors’ monologues belong to a completely different context. No less heroic and utopian in tone than the speech given by the political instructor of gunboat 874 in the original play, the capitalist manifesto was an attempt to give a concrete language to the shapeless ideology of the present, and to force the invisible currents that govern life today, in China as in the West, to the surface. Neither a lecture on neo-liberal economics, nor a theatrical performance of a narrative, the piece appropriated the format of the propaganda play to re-evaluate the relationship between art and politics now.

Re-thinking stakeholder management in construction: theory & research

From its roots in strategic management theory, stakeholder management has been adopted by the construction management academic community and applied as a valid paradigm around which research work has been generated aiming to improve project effi ciencies and effectiveness. However, academics have argued that stakeholder management should move away from purely theoretical discussions and engage more with the realities of construction project work. This paper re-appraises the stakeholder management concept for the construction domain by re-thinking some of the fundamental principles and ideals present within the more general stakeholder theory literature. It engages with issues which researchers have arguably failed to acknowledge and calls for a re-evaluation of construction stakeholder management research by presenting a review around four distinctive themes: the moral obligations of engaging with stakeholders against the business and efficiency driven imperatives of construction organisations; the contrast between theoretical abstractions and empirically grounded research; the tensions between theoretical convergence versus calls for multiple and divergent perspectives on stakeholder management and the practicalities of conducting stakeholder management in the construction domain. Such a critical re-appraisal of stakeholder management thinking both generates new lines of enquiry and promises to help inform and shape current and future industry practice.

Computational modes and grid imprinting on five quasi-uniform spherical C-grids

Currently, most operational forecasting models use latitude-longitude grids, whose convergence of meridians towards the poles limits parallel scaling. Quasi-uniform grids might avoid this limitation. Thuburn et al, JCP, 2009 and Ringler et al, JCP, 2010 have developed a method for arbitrarily-structured, orthogonal C-grids (TRiSK), which has many of the desirable properties of the C-grid on latitude-longitude grids but which works on a variety of quasi-uniform grids. Here, five quasi-uniform, orthogonal grids of the sphere are investigated using TRiSK to solve the shallow-water equations. We demonstrate some of the advantages and disadvantages of the hexagonal and triangular icosahedra, a Voronoi-ised cubed sphere, a Voronoi-ised skipped latitude-longitude grid and a grid of kites in comparison to a full latitude-longitude grid. We will show that the hexagonal-icosahedron gives the most accurate results (for least computational cost). All of the grids suffer from spurious computational modes; this is especially true of the kite grid, despite it having exactly twice as many velocity degrees of freedom as height degrees of freedom. However, the computational modes are easiest to control on the hexagonal icosahedron since they consist of vorticity oscillations on the dual grid which can be controlled using a diffusive advection scheme for potential vorticity.

A tutorial on pseudospectral methods for computational optimal control

[English] This paper is a tutorial introduction to pseudospectral optimal control. With pseudospectral methods, a function is approximated as a linear combination of smooth basis functions, which are often chosen to be Legendre or Chebyshev polynomials. Collocation of the differential-algebraic equations is performed at orthogonal collocation points, which are selected to yield interpolation of high accuracy. Pseudospectral methods directly discretize the original optimal control problem to recast it into a nonlinear programming format. A numerical optimizer is then employed to find approximate local optimal solutions. The paper also briefly describes the functionality and implementation of PSOPT, an open source software package written in C++ that employs pseudospectral discretization methods to solve multi-phase optimal control problems. The software implements the Legendre and Chebyshev pseudospectral methods, and it has useful features such as automatic differentiation, sparsity detection, and automatic scaling. The use of pseudospectral methods is illustrated in two problems taken from the literature on computational optimal control. [Portuguese] Este artigo e um tutorial introdutorio sobre controle otimo pseudo-espectral. Em metodos pseudo-espectrais, uma funcao e aproximada como uma combinacao linear de funcoes de base suaves, tipicamente escolhidas como polinomios de Legendre ou Chebyshev. A colocacao de equacoes algebrico-diferenciais e realizada em pontos de colocacao ortogonal, que sao selecionados de modo a minimizar o erro de interpolacao. Metodos pseudoespectrais discretizam o problema de controle otimo original de modo a converte-lo em um problema de programa cao nao-linear. Um otimizador numerico e entao empregado para obter solucoes localmente otimas. Este artigo tambem descreve sucintamente a funcionalidade e a implementacao de um pacote computacional de codigo aberto escrito em C++ chamado PSOPT. Tal pacote emprega metodos de discretizacao pseudo-spectrais para resolver problemas de controle otimo com multiplas fase. O PSOPT permite a utilizacao de metodos de Legendre ou Chebyshev, e possui caractersticas uteis tais como diferenciacao automatica, deteccao de esparsidade e escalonamento automatico. O uso de metodos pseudo-espectrais e ilustrado em dois problemas retirados da literatura de controle otimo computacional.

Comments, with reply, on "Computational algorithms for pole assignment" by N.K. Nichols

Some points of the paper by N.K. Nichols (see ibid., vol.AC-31, p.643-5, 1986), concerning the robust pole assignment of linear multiinput systems, are clarified. It is stressed that the minimization of the condition number of the closed-loop eigenvector matrix does not necessarily lead to robustness of the pole assignment. It is shown why the computational method, which Nichols claims is robust, is in fact numerically unstable with respect to the determination of the gain matrix. In replying, Nichols presents arguments to support the choice of the conditioning of the closed-loop poles as a measure of robustness and to show that the methods of J Kautsky, N. K. Nichols and P. VanDooren (1985) are stable in the sense that they produce accurate solutions to well-conditioned problems.

On computational algorithms for pole assignment

A number of computationally reliable direct methods for pole assignment by feedback have recently been developed. These direct procedures do not necessarily produce robust solutions to the problem, however, in the sense that the assigned poles are insensitive to perturbalions in the closed-loop system. This difficulty is illustrated here with results from a recent algorithm presented in this TRANSACTIONS and its causes are examined. A measure of robustness is described, and techniques for testing and improving robustness are indicated.

Modular non-computational-connectionist-hybrid neural network approach to robotic systems

Spiking neural networks are usually limited in their applications due to their complex mathematical models and the lack of intuitive learning algorithms. In this paper, a simpler, novel neural network derived from a leaky integrate and fire neuron model, the ‘cavalcade’ neuron, is presented. A simulation for the neural network has been developed and two basic learning algorithms implemented within the environment. These algorithms successfully learn some basic temporal and instantaneous problems. Inspiration for neural network structures from these experiments are then taken and applied to process sensor information so as to successfully control a mobile robot.

Controlling the computational modes of the arbitrarily structured C-grid

The arbitrarily structured C-grid, TRiSK (Thuburn, Ringler, Skamarock and Klemp, 2009, 2010) is being used in the ``Model for Prediction Across Scales'' (MPAS) and is being considered by the UK Met Office for their next dynamical core. However the hexagonal C-grid supports a branch of spurious Rossby modes which lead to erroneous grid-scale oscillations of potential vorticity (PV). It is shown how these modes can be harmlessly controlled by using upwind-biased interpolation schemes for PV. A number of existing advection schemes for PV are tested, including that used in MPAS, and none are found to give adequate results for all grids and all cases. Therefore a new scheme is proposed; continuous, linear-upwind stabilised transport (CLUST), a blend between centred and linear-upwind with the blend dependent on the flow direction with respect to the cell edge. A diagnostic of grid-scale oscillations is proposed which gives further discrimination between schemes than using potential enstrophy alone and indeed some schemes are found to destroy potential enstrophy while grid-scale oscillations grow. CLUST performs well on hexagonal-icosahedral grids and unrotated skipped latitude-longitude grids of the sphere for various shallow water test cases. Despite the computational modes, the hexagonal icosahedral grid performs well since these modes are easy and harmless to filter. As a result TRiSK appears to perform better than a spectral shallow water model.