The Crick Report: difference,equality and racial justice

This article examines current policy on citizenship education in England, drawing on the recommendations of the 1998 Crick Report, Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools. In particular, it seeks to establish whether the proposals for citizenship education outlined in the report and draft frameworks for citizenship education, published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority as part of the National Curriculum review for England, have the potential to contribute towards racial equality. The report sets out to provide a framework for citizenship education which is intended to strengthen our democracy. The publication of the Macpherson Report of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry in 1999 led senior politicians to acknowledge institutional racism in British society and to pledge themselves to a programme to eradicate racism. Racism is therefore now officially recognized by those in government as one of the forces which operates to restrict the citizenship rights of minorities and undermines the principles of democracy. An understanding of racism, the ways in which it serves to undermine democracy, and skills to challenge this anti-democratic force are therefore essential features of any education programme which seeks to promote the political literacy of citizens. This article argues that a key aim in any programme of citizenship education must be to enable young people to understand the barriers to citizenship and to equip them with the skills to challenge and overcome such barriers. It examines the images and understandings of multiculturalism in the Crick Report and considers how it deals with questions of difference, equality and justice. It further examines whether the proposals within the report are an adequate basis from which sound anti-racist education programmes might be developed or whether the report itself may unwittingly reflect racism. It concludes by suggesting how the citizenship education project might be modified so that it promotes a vision of a multicultural society founded on principles of human rights and of schools where children are able to realize their rights on the basis of equality.     

The Scientific Value of Cognitive Load Theory: A Research Agenda Based on the Structuralist View of Theories

In this paper, two methodological perspectives are used to elaborate on the value of cognitive load theory (CLT) as a scientific theory. According to the more traditional critical rationalism of Karl Popper, CLT cannot be considered a scientific theory because some of its fundamental assumptions cannot be tested empirically and are thus not falsifiable. According to the structuralist view of theories introduced by Joseph D. Sneed, a theory may be considered scientific even if it comprises nontestable fundamental assumptions. Rather, the scientific value of a theory results from the holistic empirical content of the overall theory net built around fundamental assumptions and from the successful applications of this theory net to explain and predict empirical findings. This latter view is helpful to explicate some implicit methodological assumptions of CLT research and to avoid the potential circularity of CLT’s fundamental assumptions. Additionally, the structuralist view of theories can be directly used to derive a research agenda for the future development of CLT.     

Trajectory tracking for a quadrotor under wind perturbations: sliding mode control with state-dependent gains

The problem of position tracking of a mini drone subject to wind perturbations is investigated. The solution is based on a detailed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) model, with aerodynamic coefficients and external disturbance components, which is introduced in order to better represent the impact of the wind field. Then, upper bounds of wind-induced disturbances are characterized, which allow a sliding mode control (SMC) technique to be applied with guaranteed convergence properties. The peculiarity of the considered case is that the disturbance upper bounds depend on the control amplitude itself (i.e. the system is nonlinear in control), which leads to a new procedure for the control tuning presented in the paper. The last part of the paper is dedicated to the analysis and reduction of chattering effects, as well as investigation of rotor dynamics issues. Conventional SMC with constant gains, proposed first order SMC, and proposed quasi-continuous SMC are compared. Nonlinear UAV simulator, validated through in-door experiments, is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controls.     

Identifying paths to audience success of media products: the media decision-makers’ perspective

Research on media success factors is a fragmented field. Definitions, measures, and methods vary, and findings are often inconsistent. In an attempt to fill this perceived research gap, we distilled generic success factors of media products from the literature. Guided by theory and empirical findings, these factors were aggregated to complex concepts, building blocks of success that we further investigated in an exploratory qualitative study. We found that the building blocks are applicable to all types of media, independent of seriality and content types of media products. Subsequently the research question of this article is: Which building blocks of success are most important for media products? To answer this question, we conducted an online survey of 255 media professionals in print, audio-visual, and online media in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. To analyze our data, we deployed qualitative comparative analysis, a method based on set theory that is suitable to investigate complex causality. We conclude that four building blocks are necessary for success: “good” distribution, environmental orientation, form/design, and human resources are preconditions for achieving success in terms of audience market share. In addition, three patterns emerge in the sufficient paths (combinations of building blocks) to success. Which route to success a media product shows can be related to the width of its topical scope and the corresponding projected audience size.     

An external focus of attention is a conditio sine qua non for athletes: a response to Carson,Collins, and Toner (2015)

In this invited response to a Letter to the Editor by Carson, Collins, and Toner (2015), I comment on various issues raised by the authors. I highlight the broad range of tasks and dependent measures used in studies comparing the effectiveness of external versus internal foci of attention. These studies – many of which involved sport skills – have consistently found performance or learning benefits when an external focus was adopted. There is no convincing evidence that performers’ preferences, or their familiarity with a certain focus, have a moderating effect. Anecdotal evidence reported by coaches who have compared the two types of foci is consistent with research findings. An external focus presumably promotes functional connectivity and contributes to goal-action coupling.