Today, computers fulfil a dazzling array of roles, a flexibility resulting from the great range of programs that can be run on them.

"A Science of Operations" examines the history of what we now call programming, defined not simply as "computer" programming, but more broadly as the definition of the steps involved in computations and other information-processing activities. This unique perspective highlights how the history of programming is distinct from the history of the computer, despite the close relationship between the two in the 20th century. The book also discusses how the development of programming languages is related to disparate fields which attempted to give a mechanical account of language on the one hand, and a linguistic account of machines on the other.

Topics and features: Covers the early development of automatic computing, including Babbage's "mechanical calculating engines" and the applications of punched-card technology, examines the theoretical work of mathematical logicians such as Kleene, Church, Post and Turing, and the machines built by Zuse and Aiken in the 1930s and 1940s, discusses the role that logic played in the development of the stored program computer, describes the "standard model" of machine-code programming popularised by Maurice Wilkes, presents the complete table for the universal Turing machine in the Appendices, investigates the rise of the initiatives aimed at developing higher-level programming notations, and how these came to be thought of as 'languages' that could be studied independently of a machine, examines the importance of the Algol 60 language, and the framework it provided for studying the design of programming languages and the process of software development and explores the early development of object-oriented languages, with a focus on the Smalltalk project.

This fascinating text offers a new viewpoint for historians of science and technology, as well as for the general reader. The historical narrative builds the story in a clear and logical fashion, roughly following chronological order.

Combining critical policy analysis with biographical accounts, this book provides a socio-historical account of the changing treatment of disabled people in Britain from the 1940s to the present day. It examines how public policies and institutions influenced the kinds of life choices and chances that were available, while private resources were significant in resisting and challenging policy. Disability and Social Change asks whether life has really changed for disabled people and shows the value of using biographical methods in new and critical ways to examine social and historical change over time. It offers students, researchers and policy makers new ways of understanding historical and contemporary debates in disability studies.

Recent worldwide education policy has reinvented teachers as agents of change and professional developers of the school curriculum. Academic literature has analyzed changes in how teacher professionalism is conceived in policy and in practice but Teacher Agency provides a fresh perspective on this issue, drawing upon an ecological theory of agency. Using this model for understanding agency, Mark Priestley, Gert Biesta and Sarah Robinson explore empirical findings from the 'Teacher Agency and Curriculum Change' project, funded by the UK-based Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Drawing together this research with the authors' international experiences and perspectives, Teacher Agency addresses theoretical and practical issues of international significance. The authors illustrate how teacher agency should be understood not only in terms of individual capacity of teachers, but also in respect of the cultures and structures of schooling.

This book explores the global experience of disability using a novel life course approach. It provides a unique combination of analysis, policy issues and autobiography, offering the reader a rare opportunity to make links among the theoretical, the political and the personal in a single volume. There are contributions from thirteen different countries bringing together established and emerging writers, both disabled and nondisabled. The book bridges some important gaps in the existing disability literature and offers a unique analysis of the relationship between disability and generation in a changing world.

Combining critical policy analysis with biographical accounts, this book provides a socio-historical account of the changing treatment of disabled people in Britain from the 1940s to the present day. It asks whether life has really changed for disabled people and shows the value of using biographical methods in new and critical ways to examine social and historical change over time.

Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence offers an example of a different approach to national curriculum development. It combines what are claimed to be the best features of top-down and bottom-up approaches to curriculum development, and provides an indication of the broad qualities that school education should promote rather than a detailed description of curriculum content. Advocates of the approach argue that it provides central guidance for schools and maintains national standards whilst at the same time allowing schools and teachers the flexibility to take account of local needs when designing programmes of education. Reinventing the Curriculum uses Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence as a rich case study, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to curriculum design and development, and exploring the implications for curriculum planning and development around the world.

Today, computers fulfil a dazzling array of roles, a flexibility resulting from the great range of programs that can be run on them. A Science of Operations examines the history of what we now call programming, defined not simply as computer programming, but more broadly as the definition of the steps involved in computations and other information-processing activities. This unique perspective highlights how the history of programming is distinct from the history of the computer, despite the close relationship between the two in the 20th century. The book also discusses how the development of programming languages is related to disparate fields which attempted to give a mechanical account of language on the one hand, and a linguistic account of machines on the other. Topics and features: Covers the early development of automatic computing, including Babbage's "mechanical calculating engines" and the applications of punched-card technology, examines the theoretical work of mathematical logicians such as Kleene, Church, Post and Turing, and the machines built by Zuse and Aiken in the 1930s and 1940s, discusses the role that logic played in the development of the stored program computer, describes the "standard model" of machine-code programming popularised by Maurice Wilkes, presents the complete table for the universal Turing machine in the Appendices, investigates the rise of the initiatives aimed at developing higher-level programming nota tions, and how these came to be thought of as 'languages' that could be studied independently of a machine, examines the importance of the Algol 60 language, and the framework it provided for studying the design of programming languages and the process of software development and explores the early development of object-oriented languages, with a focus on the Smalltalk project. This fascinating text offers a new viewpoint for historians of science and technology, as well as for the general reader. The historical narrative builds the story in a clear and logical fashion, roughly following chronological order.

Recent worldwide education policy has reinvented teachers as agents of change and professional development of the school curriculum. Academic literature has analyzed changes in how teacher professionalism is conceived in policy and in practice but Teacher Agency provides a fresh perspective on the issue, drawing upon an ecological theory of agency. Using this model for understanding agency, Mark Priestley, Gert Biesta and Sarah Robinson explore empirical findings from the 'Teacher Agency and Curriculum Change' project, funded by the UK-based Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Drawing together this research with the authors' international experiences and perspectives, Teacher Agency addresses theoretical and practical issues of international significance. The authors illustrate how teacher agency should be understood not only in terms of individual capacity for teachers, but also in respect of the cultures and structures of schooling.

Responding to profound social, political and technological changes, recent global trends in education have included the emergence of new forms of curriculum policy. Addressing a gap in the literature, this book investigates the ways in which curriculum policy is influenced, formulated, and enacted in a number of countries-cases in Europe. This important collection uses the concept of 'curriculum making' as an analytical tool to explore the processes and phases of curriculum policy reform experienced across countries. Drawing first on international perspectives and then presenting a series of country case studies, written by internationally recognised curriculum specialists, the chapters explore curriculum making as an activity that occurs across multiple layers of educational systems, through a continual interplay of the global and local. Concluding with a comparative analysis of the contextual factors that shape curricular practices in different contexts, this book is a must-have resource for educational policy makers, researchers, teachers and teacher educators across the globe.

This book explores the global experience of disability using a novel life course approach. It provides a unique combination of analysis, policy issues and autobiography, offering the reader a rare opportunity to make links among the theoretical, the political and the personal in a single volume. There are contributions from thirteen different countries bringing together established and emerging writers, both disabled and nondisabled. The book bridges some important gaps in the existing disability literature and offers a unique analysis of the relationship between disability and generation in a changing world.

This work is a historical and philosophical study of the programming work carried out by John von Neumann in the period 1945-8. At the heart of the book is an examination of a manuscript featuring the earliest known surviving example of von Neumann's coding, a routine written in 1945 to 'mesh' two sequences of data and intended to be part of a larger program implementing the algorithm now known as mergesort. The text of the manuscript itself, along with a preliminary document describing the code he used to write this program, are reproduced as appendices. The program is approached in three chapters describing the historical background to von Neumann's work, the significance of the sorting application itself, and the development of the EDVAC, the machine for which the program was written. The subsequent chapters widen the focus again, discussing the subsequent evolution of the program and the crucial topic of subroutines, before concluding by situating von Neumann's work in a number of wider contexts. The book also offers a unifying philosophical interpretation of von Neumann's approach to coding.

The new second edition of "Practical Object Oriented Design with UML" provides a concise introduction to the design of object-oriented programs using UML. The book focuses on the application of UML in the development of software, and also offers a detailed tutorial introduction to the UML notation and its application. The book provides the ideal introduction to UML for undergraduates taking modules in object-oriented techniques as part of a Computer Science or Software Engineering degree programme.

Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence offers an example of a different approach to national curriculum development. It combines what are claimed to be the best features of top-down and bottom-up approaches to curriculum development, and provides an indication of the broad qualities that school education should promote rather than a detailed description of curriculum content. Advocates of the approach argue that it provides central guidance for schools and maintains national standards whilst at the same time allowing schools and teachers the flexibility to take account of local needs when designing programmes of education. Reinventing the Curriculum uses Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence as a rich case study, analysing the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to curriculum design and development, and exploring the implications for curriculum planning and development around the world.

This powerful volume represents the broadest engagement with disability issues in South Africa yet. Themes include theoretical approaches to and representations of disability, governmental and civil society responses to disability, aspects of education as these pertain to the oppression/liberation of disabled people, social security for disabled people, the complex politics permeating service provision relationships, and consideration of disability in relation to human spaces - physical, economic and philosophical. Noteworthy is the inclusivity of its nearly fifty contributors, many of whom write both as disabled South Africans and as educators, parents, linguists, psychologists, human rights activists, entrepreneurs, mental health practitioners, academics, and NGO and government officials. Equally stimulating is the range of writing styles, including interviews, a provocatively stark contrasting of voices in a chapter on Psychiatric Disability and Social Change, various well crafted articles on theoretical issues and the autobiographical style of many of the contributions.; Firmly located within the social model of disability, this collection will resonate powerfully with contemporary thinking and research in the disability field and will set the benchmark for cutting-edge debates in a transforming South Africa.

Mark Priestley addresses the relationship between the politics of disability and community care policies. Guided by his direct work with representatives of the disabled people's movement, he argues that although the ideas behind social policy and practice have started to reflect values such as participation, integration and equality, the current policy and its implementation often undermine those goals. `Community care' still contributes to the view of disabled people as dependent and different, thus reinforcing their social exclusion and marginalisation. Disability Politics and Community Care encourages health and welfare professionals and policy makers to start working much more closely with disabled people themselves. Priestley argues that involving disabled people in the design and production of their own welfare will break down the disabling boundary between service `provider' and `user' and will result in the reality of integrated living. He presents practical suggestions for the changes necessary for the proposed reorganisation of service provision which will re-define direct work with disabled people.