A Descriptive Study of Middle School Teachers' Current Perspectives On and Teaching Practices For Integrating Music in Public School Curricula

The purpose of this study was to investigate middle school teachers' current perspectives on and teaching practices for integrating music into their respective curricula. Two research questions guided the study. What are teachers' current practices for integrating music into their curricula? What music-related resources and support systems do teachers feel are necessary to integrate music into their curricula? A 35-item questionnaire was distributed to 138 middle school teachers in a rural public school system in Eastern North Carolina. The questionnaire was divided into three sections: (a) current teaching practices for integrating music and other arts areas into the general curriculum as related to the use of Bresler's (1995) integration styles and Wiggins' (2001) teaching connections, (b) availability of music-related resources such as musical training and adequate planning time and support systems for integrating music into the general curriculum, and (c) demographic information. Two open-ended questionnaire items required respondents to explain their reasons for or for not integrating music into their curricula. Descriptive statistical procedures were used to analyze the questionnaire data. Results of the present study revealed most middle school teachers did not integrate music or other arts areas into their general curricula. Of the respondents who indicated a practice of integrating music, Bresler's (1995) affective integration style and Wiggins' (2001) teaching tools connections were the techniques most frequently used. Of the respondents who indicated a practice of integrating other arts areas, Bresler's (1995) subservient approach and Wiggins' (2001) teaching tools connections were the techniques most frequently used. Most respondents indicated that they did not have appropriate musical training, adequate planning time, and available music-related resources to integrate music into their curricula; though, respondents agreed they had support to integrate music into their curricula from their colleagues and administrators. Respondents primarily integrated music in the general curriculum for the purpose of teaching subject area content. The primary reasons given by respondents for not integrating music in the general curriculum were lack of time and musical knowledge. Additional research on investigating the integration of music at the middle school level is needed; though, results from this study suggest that teachers may benefit from access to music-related resources to teach music-integrated lessons. Additionally, teachers may benefit from professional development for the purpose of creating music-integrated lessons that promote young adolescents' critical thinking and problem solving skills through the integration techniques that engage students' higher-level processing skills

THE ADAPTATION OF ACCOUNTING DATA WITHIN INTEGRATED INFORMATICS SYSTEMS

The increase of the reaction speed within economic organisms may beaccomplished if the entire informational subsystem becomes informational. Up tonow, the automatisation of some departments from firms has offered the expectedresults, accelerating their activity. The necessity of integrating these already-informational departments into a common system has become acute in time and theconcern of forming these integrated informational systems has been accentuated. Themaking of these desiderata has become concrete with the help of some integratingsoftware for the activity of the firm, called ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning).decision, informational system, integrated system, ERP

Operating theatre modelling: integrating social measures

Hospital resource modelling literature is primarily focussed on productivity and efficiency measures. In this paper, our focus is on the alignment of the most valuable revenue factor, the operating room (OR) with the most valuable cost factor, the staff. When aligning these economic and social decisions, respectively, into one sustainable model, simulation results justify the integration of these factors. This research shows that integrating staff decisions and OR decisions results in better solutions for both entities. A discrete event simulation approach is used as a performance test to evaluate an integrated and an iterative model. Experimental analysis show how our integrated approach can benefit the alignment of the planning of the human resources as well as the planning of the capacity of the OR based on both economic related metrics (lead time, overtime, number of patients rejected) and social related metrics (personnel preferences, aversions, roster quality)

All hands on deck: CREWED for technology-enabled learning

The University of New South Wales’ (UNSW’s) Faculty of Engineering is introducing a new process for designing and developing blended and fully online (distance) courses, as part of action research to support curriculum renewal. The process, referred to as CREWED (Curriculum Renewal and E-learning Workloads: Embedding in Disciplines), is being used to develop key courses that add flexibility to student progression pathways. By integrating the design of learning activities with the planning and organization of teaching and support work, CREWED addresses some of the known barriers to embedding innovative use of learning technologies within disciplines. CREWED incorporates key features of two course development models from the UK, one emphasising team building and the other emphasising pedagogical planning. It has been piloted in priority curriculum development projects, to ensure that the disciplinary organizational context is supportive. One pilot is a fully online distance version of a postgraduate course. The other is a blended version of an undergraduate course. Both are core (required) courses in accredited professional engineering degree programs and were previously available only in face-to-face mode. The UNSW pilots have confirmed the importance of articulating clear pedagogical models, and of planning ahead for the resources required to put these models into practice, as part of departmental capacity building, especially where teaching has primarily been treated as an individual classroom-based activity that competes with disciplinary research for academic staff time and resources

Tactical planning in healthcare using approximate dynamic programming

Tactical planning of resources in hospitals concerns elective patient admission planning and the intermediate term allocation of resource capacities. Its main objectives are to achieve equitable access for patients, to serve the strategically agreed number of patients, and to use resources efficiently. We propose a method to develop a tactical resource allocation and patient admission plan that takes stochastic elements into consideration, thereby providing robust plans. Our method is developed in an Approximate Dynamic Programming (ADP) framework and copes with multiple resources, multiple time periods and multiple patient groups with various uncertain treatment paths through the hospital and an uncertain number of arrivals in each time period, thereby integrating decision making for a chain of hospital resources. Computational results indicate that the ADP approach provides an accurate approximation of the value functions, and that it is suitable for large problem instances at hospitals, in which the ADP approach performs significantly better than two other heuristic approaches. Our ADP algorithm is generic, as various cost functions and basis functions can be used in various settings of tactical hospital management

Software Testbed for Developing and Evaluating Integrated Autonomous Subsystems

To implement fault tolerant autonomy in future space systems, it will be necessary to integrate planning, adaptive control, and state estimation subsystems. However, integrating these subsystems is difficult, time-consuming, and error-prone. This paper describes Intelliface/ADAPT, a software testbed that helps researchers develop and test alternative strategies for integrating planning, execution, and diagnosis subsystems more quickly and easily. The testbed's architecture, graphical data displays, and implementations of the integrated subsystems support easy plug and play of alternate components to support research and development in fault-tolerant control of autonomous vehicles and operations support systems. Intelliface/ADAPT controls NASA's Advanced Diagnostics and Prognostics Testbed (ADAPT), which comprises batteries, electrical loads (fans, pumps, and lights), relays, circuit breakers, invertors, and sensors. During plan execution, an experimentor can inject faults into the ADAPT testbed by tripping circuit breakers, changing fan speed settings, and closing valves to restrict fluid flow. The diagnostic subsystem, based on NASA's Hybrid Diagnosis Engine (HyDE), detects and isolates these faults to determine the new state of the plant, ADAPT. Intelliface/ADAPT then updates its model of the ADAPT system's resources and determines whether the current plan can be executed using the reduced resources. If not, the planning subsystem generates a new plan that reschedules tasks, reconfigures ADAPT, and reassigns the use of ADAPT resources as needed to work around the fault. The resource model, planning domain model, and planning goals are expressed using NASA's Action Notation Modeling Language (ANML). Parts of the ANML model are generated automatically, and other parts are constructed by hand using the Planning Model Integrated Development Environment, a visual Eclipse-based IDE that accelerates ANML model development. Because native ANML planners are currently under development and not yet sufficiently capable, the ANML model is translated into the New Domain Definition Language (NDDL) and sent to NASA's EUROPA planning system for plan generation. The adaptive controller executes the new plan, using augmented, hierarchical finite state machines to select and sequence actions based on the state of the ADAPT system. Real-time sensor data, commands, and plans are displayed in information-dense arrays of timelines and graphs that zoom and scroll in unison. A dynamic schematic display uses color to show the real-time fault state and utilization of the system components and resources. An execution manager coordinates the activities of the other subsystems. The subsystems are integrated using the Internet Communications Engine (ICE). an object-oriented toolkit for building distributed applications

Early Childhood Councils: Effective Planning Processes for Health Systems Integration

The Colorado Trust launched its Early Childhood Council Health Integration grant strategy in 2008. Through this effort, the Early Childhood Councils developed strategies to better integrate health practitioners and health care services into their work, along with their already-established focus on early care and education, and family supports. The goal of this grant strategy was to support sustainable efforts by the Councils to change the way local resources were coordinated, reduce service duplication, increase access to health care services and contribute to improved health outcomes for children (ages 0-12 years) across the state. To realize this goal, The Colorado Trust provided the Councils with grant support and technical assistance to engage in the development of plans to achieve integrated childhood development systems in their communities. This case study discusses the successes, challenges and lessons learned from the Early Childhood Council Health Integration planning grant process. Using qualitative data collected through focus groups and key informant interviews, the report details how the planning process was structured, what worked and didn't work as the Councils developed their systems-building plans, and provides recommendations for funders to consider when conducting a systems-building planning process. Key themes include:Grantees learned about systems change and developed plans to achieve such change. The planning process provided Councils with the time, resources and guidance necessary to learn about and develop well-thought-out plans to build connections and develop the infrastructure to help support and sustain programs for children and families across multiple systems. Community-level data is essential in fostering collaboration and planning. Even as it was difficult to access key data for certain populations or geographic regions, many Councils were able to use local data as a tool to coalesce new partnerships and develop a shared vision for change. Integrating new partners into an established system requires planning. For many Councils, the planning process timeframe was essential in conducting outreach to local health partners, especially with regard to developing a shared vision and common language.Funders need to require and support systemic change. It was important that The Colorado Trust explicitly required grantees to engage in activities that supported effective implementation of high-quality programs and connections across systems as opposed to solely focusing the funding on individual programs. While this work was new to most of the Councils, they reported that having a funder willing to support systems-building was a welcome change that better enabled them to tackle a complex scope of work and to address unanticipated challenges

Integrating Public Health into Planning: Promising Practices for Regional Planning Councils

This Capstone project was designed to provide technical expertise to Greater Portland Council of Governments (GPCOG) for their 2017 strategic planning process. GPCOG is the Regional Planning Council (RPC) for Cumberland County, Maine. Also known as Councils of Government (COGs) and simply Regional Councils – these municipal and regional planning organizations were established in the U.S. in the 1960s. They are multi-service entities with state-defined boundaries that deliver a variety of federal, state, and local program supports. They provide planning and technical assistance to their member municipal governments. RPCs are accountable to their members and are partners with the state and federal governments. RPCs usually work closely with the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and other planning groups. This is the case with GPCOG and the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System (PACTS) which are legally separate organizations, but are co-located, sharing office space and staff. GPCOG is currently working with its member municipalities and stakeholders to examine its identity and refine its role in the region. Executive Director Kristina Egan sees the strategic planning process as an ideal time to present the opportunity for integrating public health into the agency’s transportation and land use planning. GPCOG’s member towns and cities are looking for data-driven strategies and are open to new approaches. GPCOG’s leadership wants to ensure the organization has access to the resources and tools of the public health sector. In short, GPCOG wants to be ready with answers when towns ask “how do we incorporate public health?” This project explores how communities in the U.S. are integrating public health practices into planning. Specifically, it examines efforts to integrate public health into planning within RPCs. The project identifies tools and approaches that leading RPCs are using to successfully integrate public health into planning in their regions, in response to two questions posed by GPCOG: 1. What are the promising practices for embedding public health in the community planning and development efforts of regional planning councils? 2. How can this be done in a way that is financially sustainable

Planning a national park in lower Yangtze Delta, China

Chen Zhi's National Taihu Lake Park published in 1929, is the first planning of our country’s national park. This article attempts to analyze the beautification and recreation of Chen Zhi's conception. The author starts with the development of the national park at that time and the practice experience of Chen Zhi, combing the Taihu Lake watershed’s natural and social conditions. What’s more, the author interprets the planning text of Taihu Lake from four aspects, including landscape resources, traffic system, supporting facilities, and construction of scenic forests. Based on this, this article analyzes Chen Zhi’s considerations of drawing lessons from abroad and integrating them into the local culture, pursues the relevance of its design concept with America and Japan, and presents the spread of national park’s concept in our country in the same period

Multiscale design for system-wide peer-to-peer energy trading

The integration of renewable generation and the electrification of heating and transportation are critical for the sustainable energy transition toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. These changes require the large-scale adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs). Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading has gained attention as a new approach for incentivizing the uptake and coordination of DERs, with advantages for computational scalability, prosumer autonomy, and market competitiveness. However, major unresolved challenges remain for scaling out P2P trading, including enforcing network constraints, managing uncertainty, and mediating transmission and distribution conflicts. Here, we propose a novel multiscale design framework for P2P trading, with inter-platform coordination mechanisms to align local transactions with system-level requirements, and analytical tools to enhance long-term planning and investment decisions by accounting for forecast real-time operation. By integrating P2P trading into planning and operation across spatial and temporal scales, the adoption of large-scale DERs is tenable and can create economic, environmental, and social co-benefits