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The design and early implementation of a major national design initiative in England, the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL), is described in this paper. This novel hybrid master's degree seeks to span the traditional academicpractitioner divide, reconstitute the theory-practice dynamic as reciprocal and coconstruct an authentic signature pedagogy for teacher professionals drawing on contextualised theories of learning and teaching. The historical, theoretical and pedagogic foundations of the programme of professional enhancement are described at the outset of the implementation of this new model of early career development in the South West of England through the formation of university provider consortia, stringent processes of validation and critical milestone reviews including trainer and coach training, recruitment and first inauguration of the programme. IntroductionThis paper informs the debate about professional learning from the perspective of improving practice-related outcomes for learners who are also school teachers. It seeks to reframe teacher professional learning within the specific policy context of a new national model of master's level professional development -the Master's in Teaching and Learning (MTL) -which is being developed under the aegis of the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) in England, and more broadly against the background of issues raised in the literature on approaches to professional development. Here we seek to situate the account of this reframing within:

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In the current higher education (HE) environment, indicators of 'teaching excellence' (TE) are increasingly under the spotlight. The literature offers a wide range of models and perspectives, but also highlights the need for greater (comparative) scrutiny of the perceptions of those at the centre -staff teaching across the disciplines in different countries. This article aims to contribute to ongoing debates by investigating and comparing the views of 120 academic staff teaching in one of two countries -England and Australia -in an attempt to deepen our appreciation of their definitions and understandings. The findings from this two-stage enquiry using online questionnaires and interviews indicate broad commonalities in the ways academics define TE, centred on facilitative, interactive pedagogy related to individual professional aspirations; they also reveal widely shared reservations about the term's legitimacy and institutional/marketized (ab)use. As such, the findings offer policy-makers and institutions useful insights at a time where TE definitions and metrics are growing global pre-occupations. Literature reviewPerhaps the first thing to note from the literature is a widely reported lack of consensus on a commonly agreed definition of TE (Greatbatch and Holland 2016;Gunn and Fisk 2013).This fluidity of definition is matched by a degree of terminological flux in how the construct is also expressed, with competing coinages such as 'teaching excellence,' 'teacher excellence' and 'excellent teaching.' Again, the nuanced differences implied by these terms are not universally consistent, reinforcing the 'ambiguity and ambivalence across the sector as to what constitutes excellence ' (Gunn and Fisk 2013,19). Despite the contested nature of the concept, educationists have of course long been concerned with definitions of TE, and a number of these will now be examined.Ramsden (2003) has devoted considerable research attention to the topic, and has identified a number of central features in relation to TE in HE. These include a wide range of qualities, skills and dispositions, such as expert subject knowledge, communication and information technology skills, having a good sense of humour, being reflective, approachable, passionate and supportive, and providing timely feedback, among others. Fried (2001) singles out the important role of passion in this respect, while Handy (1990) identifies six personal 'efactors' -energy, excitement, enthusiasm, effort, effervescence and enterprise. Sherman et al.'s study from 1987 suggests five characteristics of excellence -enthusiasm, clarity, organization, stimulation and a love of knowledge, qualities largely echoed more recently in Bradley et al.'s (2015) UK study of student perceptions of excellence. Parker (2015) offers a tri-partite model, based on personal attributes (enthusiasm, creativity); role performance (providing authentic engagement and relevance); and positive student-teacher relationships.Su and Wood (2012) acknowledge the large number of models revealed in the...

The South Wales Coalfield is a Variscan foreland basin extensively deformed by both linked and isolated thrusts in response to regional NW-SE compressive stress. Thrusts normally strike NE-SW, but transpression has caused a variable dextral rotation of the thrusts to strike E-W and even NW-SE. The range in orientation has allowed thrust-related fractures locally to be opened within the neotectonic stress field in which al is oriented NW-SE. It is argued that similar thrust-related permeability should be developed in other coal-bearing foreland basins both associated with the Late Carboniferous Variscan/ Appalachian orogeny and with younger compressional tectonic systems.The dominant meso-to major-scale structures formed during the compression of coalbearing sequences are thrusts and folds. Strains at leading and trailing tip-lines of isolated thrusts and in the immediate hanging wall and footwall generate tension cracks which may act as methane conduits. Unsealed, these allow permeability parallel to thrust strike. D~collements form as bed-parallel detachments within coals, developing as pervasive shear zones, characterized by cleavage duplexes and C-S fabrics in which a penetrative new hinterland-dipping fabric is formed. This fabric, under changing regional stress conditions, may be opened to form a highly effective gas migration pathway. Coal-bearing strata develop chevron folds with flexural slip in fold limbs and tension gashes in competent strata, generating porosity and permeability parallel to the strike of fold limbs. Incompetent coal seams are strongly sheared, producing cleavage duplexes with contrasting vergence in opposing limbs.