This book explores the ongoing transformation processes in various education systems, including those in Asia. Drawing on research, policy and practice in a diverse range of contexts to illuminate the process of system transformation and improvement, it provides a rich comparative basis for considering large-scale reform and offers contemporary reflections and insights into the process of school and system improvement. The book features informed critique, as well as descriptions, analyses and assessments of system reform in all its facets. Accordingly, it offers unique perspectives on the change processes, and reveals how numerous countries in Asia and elsewhere are tackling the challenge of transforming their schools and education systems.

This manual offers a detailed, up-to-date explanation of how to carry out economic valuation using stated preference techniques. It is relevant for the application of these techniques to all non-market goods and services including air and water quality; provision of public open space; health care that is not sold through private markets; risk reduction policies and investments not provided privately; provision of information as with the recorded heritage, the protection of cultural assets and so on. The resulting valuations can be used for a number of purposes including, but not limited to, demonstrating the importance of a good or service; cost-benefit analysis; setting priorities for environmental policy; design of economic instruments; green national/corporate accounting, and natural resource damage assessment. Compiled by the leading experts in the field, this manual starts by explaining the concepts. It shows how to choose the most appropriate technique and how to design the questionnaires. Detailed advice on econometric analysis is provided, as well as explanation of the pitfalls that need to be avoided.

Advances in network connectivity, power consumption, and physical size create new possibilities for using interactive computing outdoors. However, moving computing outdoors can drastically change the human outdoor experience. This impact is felt in many kinds of outdoor activities such as citizen science, personal recreation, search and rescue, informal education, and others. It is also felt across outdoor settings that range from remote wilderness to crowded cities. Understanding these effects can lead to ideas, designs and systems that improve, rather than diminish, outdoor experiences. This book represents the current results emerging from recent workshops focused on HCI outdoors and held in conjunction with CHI, GROUP, UbiComp, and MobileHCI conferences. Based on feedback at those workshops, and outreach to other leaders in the field, the chapters collected were crafted to highlight methods and approaches for understanding how technologies such as handhelds, wearables, and installed standalone devices impact individuals, groups, and even communities. These findings frame new ways of thinking about HCI outdoors, explore logistical issues associated with moving computing outdoors, and probe new experiences created by involving computing in outdoor pursuits. Also important are the ways that social media has influenced preparation, experience, and reflection related to outdoor experiences. HCI Outdoors: Theory, Design, Methods and Applications is of interest to HCI researchers, HCI practitioners, and outdoor enthusiasts who want to shape future understanding and current practice related to technology in every kind of outdoor experience.

A major new biography of the Black Prince. 'A clear-eyed and thrilling vision of the man behind the legend' DAN JONES. 'Pacy, vivid and extremely readable' TLS. In 1346, at the age of sixteen, he won his spurs at Crecy; nine years later he conducted a brutal raid across Languedoc; in 1356 he captured the king of France at Poitiers; as lord of Aquitaine he ruled a vast swathe of southwestern France. He was Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of Edward III, but better known to posterity as 'the Black Prince'. Michael Jones tells the remarkable story of a great warrior-prince - and paints an unforgettable portrait of warfare and chivalry in the late Middle Ages.

Michael Jones is recognised on both sides of the Channel as an authority on late medieval Breton history. In this book he brings together much of his work on the subject, examining not only the administration of the duchy but also more intangible questions about the identity of a late medieval state.

This book presents a flavour of activities focussed on the need for sustainably produced biomass to support European strategic objectives for the developing bioeconomy. The chapters cover five broad topic areas relating to the use of perennial biomass crops in Europe. These are: 'Bioenergy Resources from Perennial Crops in Europe', 'European Regional Examples for the Use of Perennial Crops for Bioenergy', 'Genotypic Selection of Perennial Biomass Crops for Crop Improvement', 'Ecophysiology of Perennial Biomass Crops' and 'Examples of End-Use of Perennial Biomass Crops'. Two major issues relating to the future use of biomass energy are the identification of the most suitable second generation biomass crops and the need to utilise land not under intensive agricultural production, broadly referred to as 'marginal land'. The two main categories of plants that fit these needs are perennial rhizomatous grasses and trees that can be coppiced. The overarching questions that are addressed in the book relate to the suitability of perennial crops for providing feedstocks for a European bioeconomy and the need to exploit environments for biomass crops which do not compete with food crops. Bioenergy is the subject of a wide range of national and European policy measures. New developments covered are, for example, the use of perennial grasses to produce protein for animal feed and concepts to use perennial biomass crops to mitigate carbon emissions through soil carbon sequestration. Several chapters also show how prudent selection of suitable genotypes and breeding are essential to develop high yielding and sustainable second generation biomass crops which are adapted to a wide range of unfavourable conditions like chilling and freezing, drought, flooding and salinity. The final chapters also emphasise the need to be kept an eye out for potential new end-uses of perennial biomass crops that will contribute further to the developing bioeconomy.

This manual offers a detailed, up-to-date explanation of how to carry out economic valuation using stated preference techniques. It is relevant for the application of these techniques to all non-market goods and services including air and water quality; provision of public open space; health care that is not sold through private markets; risk reduction policies and investments not provided privately; provision of information as with the recorded heritage, the protection of cultural assets and so on. The resulting valuations can be used for a number of purposes including, but not limited to, demonstrating the importance of a good or service; cost-benefit analysis; setting priorities for environmental policy; design of economic instruments; green national/corporate accounting, and natural resource damage assessment. Compiled by the leading experts in the field, this manual starts by explaining the concepts. It shows how to choose the most appropriate technique and how to design the questionnaires. Detailed advice on econometric analysis is provided, as well as explanation of the pitfalls that need to be avoided.

Miscanthus is a promising non-food crop yielding high quality lignocellulosic material which can be used in a number of ways, including energy and fibre production, thatching, and industrial use. This book encompasses the results and recommendations arising from extensive trials and experiments carried out by the leading European research organisations and institutions in the field. Much of the research was performed under the auspices of the Miscanthus Productivity Network, established under European Union's Directorate General for Agriculture (DG VI). This book presents expert guidance to growth conditions and breeding of Miscanthus, potential productivity and economics, environmental aspects, and harvesting, storage and utilisation. A guide to this increasingly important subject is long overdue and will be welcomed by all those involved in biomass production and renewable energies, or assessing the potential of Miscanthus as a non-food crop.

More data has been produced in the 21st century than all of human history combined. Yet, are we making better decisions today than in the past? How many poor decisions result from the absence of data? The existence of an overwhelming amount of data has affected how we make decisions, but it has not necessarily improved how we make decisions. To make better decisions, people need good judgment based on data literacy-the ability to extract meaning from data. Including data in the decision-making process can bring considerable clarity in answering our questions. Nevertheless, human beings can become distracted, overwhelmed, and even confused in the presence of too much data. The book presents cautionary tales of what can happen when too much attention is spent on acquiring more data instead of understanding how to best use the data we already have. Data is not produced in a vacuum, and individuals who possess data literacy will understand the environment and incentives in the data-generating process. Readers of this book will learn what questions to ask, what data to pay attention to, and what pitfalls to avoid in order to make better decisions. They will also be less vulnerable to those who manipulate data for misleading purposes.

Evidence from more than fifty archives in western Europe offers factual detail on du Guesclin, the most famous soldier of fourteenth-century France, and glamorised subject of a contemporary chivalric verse-life. Bertrand du Guesclin (d. 1380) was the most famous French soldier of his generation. He made his name as a guerrilla leader in the Breton War of Succession (1341-64) and, as Constable from 1370-80, played a major role in the recovery of France under Charles V. Captured on at least three occasions, but also victorious in several important battles, his valour and dominant personality allowed him to exercise remarkable influence. He twice led important expeditions to Spain where he was rewarded with lands and titles by the kings of Aragon and Castile. A contemporary chivalric verse-life lies at the base of all subsequent biographies, but this book brings together for the first time the wealth of archival evidence relating to his career, making available the full range of diplomatic, administrative and financial evidence for his public and private life found in more than fifty archives in western Europe. It offers a corrective to views on du Guesclin that have traditionally been derived too exclusively, and often uncritically, from literary sources. MICHAEL JONES is Emeritus Professor of Medieval French History, University of Nottingham.

This book examines the development of nuclear propulsion in the Royal Navy from the first proposal in 1946 to the start-up of the last core improvement for the first submarine reactor power plant PWR 1 in December 1974. Drawing from unreleased records and archives, the book answers questions around three main themes. Political: what problems were encountered in transferring nuclear knowledge from the USA to the UK in the post-war period, and how much support was there for the development of nuclear propulsion? Military: why was there a requirement to develop nuclear propulsion, and in particular, why submarines? Technical: were the problems associated with nuclear energy fully appreciated, and did the UK have the technical and engineering capability to develop nuclear propulsion? Aside from the political considerations and military motives for developing nuclear propulsion in the Royal Navy, the author focuses on the technical problems that had to be overcome by all participants in the Royal Navy's development of nuclear propulsion, adding significantly to naval historiography. Providing a critical analysis of the political, technological, operational and industrial issues of introducing nuclear propulsion into the Royal Navy, the author situates his research in the context of the evolving Cold War, changing Anglo-American relations, the end of Empire and the relative decline of British power.

#1 "New York Times" bestselling author Philippa Gregory joins two eminent historians to explore the extraordinary true stories of three women largely forgotten by history: Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford; Elizabeth Woodville, queen of England; and Margaret Beaufort, the founder of the Tudor dynasty.
In her essay on Jacquetta, Philippa Gregory uses original documents, archaeology, and histories of myth and witchcraft to create the first-ever biography of the young duchess who survived two reigns and two wars to become the first lady at two rival courts. David Baldwin, established authority on the Wars of the Roses, tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, the first commoner to marry a king of England for love. And Michael Jones, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, writes of Margaret Beaufort, the almost-unknown matriarch of the House of Tudor.
Beautifully illustrated throughout with rare portraits and source materials, "The Women of the Cousins' War" offers fascinating insights into the inspirations behind Philippa Gregory's fiction and will appeal to all with an interest in this epic period.

Teachers Leading Educational Reform explores the ways in which teachers across the world are currently working together in professional learning communities (PLCs) to generate meaningful change and innovation in order to transform pedagogy and practice. By discussing how teachers can work collectively and collaboratively on the issues of learning and teaching that matter to them, it argues that through collective action and collaborative agency, teachers are leading educational reform. By offering contemporary examples and perspectives on the practice, impact and sustainability of PLCs, this book takes a global, comparative view showing categorically that those educational systems that are performing well, and seek to perform well, are using PLCs as the infrastructure to support teacher-led improvement. Split into three sections that look at the macro, meso and micro aspects of how far professional collaboration is building the capacity and capability for school and system improvement, this text asks the questions: Is the PLC work authentic? Is the PLC work being implemented at a superficial or deep level? Is there evidence of a positive impact on students/teachers at the school/district/system level? Is provision in place for sustaining the PLC work? Teachers Leading Educational Reform illustrates how focused and purposeful professional collaboration is contributing to change and reform across the globe. It reinforces why teachers must be at the heart of the school reform processes as the drivers and architects of school transformation and change.