The music learner voice : a systematic literature review and framework

For approximately the past 30 years, we have been witnessing a re-emergent interest in learner voice from researchers, teachers, policymakers, and students themselves. This widespread movement foreshadows the potential for a shift of paradigm from a unilateral top-down directivity to an inclusive and dialogical decision-making process in school systems. Youth voice is crucial to reimagine education from a global, multi-stakeholder perspective, which can foster student engagement and promote meaningful learning experiences. While the interest on the learner voice has burgeoned recently in the field of music education, the body of literature in this field is still relatively small, and its impact in the classroom and policies is limited. That said, a few research studies have been led to study specifically the learner voice in music, both in- and out-of-school contexts. However, so far, we have not encountered any systematic attempt to integrate these findings into a broader framework, depicting the diversity and the commonalities of the young learner voice in music education. To bridge this gap, we completed a systematic literature review of the research studies that capture the essence of young music learner voices, a corpus mostly comprised of narrative and storytelling studies. We carried out a thematic analysis to explore how young music learners describe their own musical experiences and meaning-making in informal and formal musical contexts. The results emerging from this systematic literature review are organized into a framework representing young learners’ perspectives on what they like and dislike about their musical experience. We propose practical implications resulting from this analysis for innovative pedagogical approaches and policies in music education, where the learner voice is inclusively engaged in a dialogical decision-making process. Finally, we explore avenues for promoting a more significant inclusion of learner voice in music education and research

Les repères microstructuraux dans l'apprentissage mnémonique de partitions de piano

Cette étude exploratoire porte sur l’apprentissage mnémonique de partitions de piano à l’aide de repères microstructuraux. Acquis en prenant conscience de différentes micro-informations, tant sur le plan de la notation musicale que de sa réalisation instrumentale, ces repères permettent d’identifier les singularités de la partition pour mieux s’en souvenir. Cette recherche doctorale poursuit deux objectifs, soit de répertorier les divers types de microstructures utilisés par les pianistes pour mémoriser une partition, puis de les classifier. Ensuite, ces repères font l’objet de diverses analyses de fréquence afin d’illustrer les préférences d’utilisation des pianistes ayant participé à l’étude. Cette étude a permis d’observer que les pianistes ont utilisé sept types différents de repères microstructuraux pour mémoriser leur répertoire. Deux types de repères sont liés à la représentation de la notation musicale; trois autres sont responsables de la représentation de la réalisation instrumentale; puis les deux derniers favorisent la prise de conscience d’associations lors du travail mnémonique.This exploratory study is about the piano score memorization with the aid of micro-structural references. Acquired by acknowledging consciously different micro-informations, at the level of musical notation as well as its execution on the instrument, those references then enable the musicians to identify the partition’s singularities to more easily memorize them. The first objective of this doctoral research is to list various types of references used by pianists to memorize their partition. Once gathered, the second objective is to classify them under larger categories. To better illustrate the pianist-preferred microstructures references used that have been observed with the musicians who participated in this study, many analysis show appearance frequencies in the data’s corpus

Does cognitive load differ among sight-singers? An exploratory study using pupillometry and interviews

Sight-singing is challenging for many music students, yet they can experience various difficulties with this task. To explore how cognitive load (CL) might differ among students, we combined two approaches: 1) a quantitative approach using pupil size diameter—a psychophysiological indicator of CL—to see whether CL differed as a function of sight-singing achievement and experience; 2) a qualitative approach to learn student's challenges when sight-singing and verify how such challenges reflect on sight-singing scores. We asked 56 post-secondary music students to complete a musical background questionnaire and to complete a sight-singing exercise, while an eye-tracker gathered data about their pupil size. After that, we interviewed them about the difficulties they experienced. The results revealed that CL did not vary between sight-singing performance and musical experience levels. However, we found a tendency suggesting that students with the highest intonation scores and lowest intonation scores both experienced a lower CL. On the contrary, CL was higher for students with average intonation scores. Interviews also revealed that many students experienced information overload while sight-singing, and students who shared such perception obtained, on average, lower sight-singing scores. Future studies should include qualitative data collection to deepen our understanding of learners' experiences

Protein-coding variants implicate novel genes related to lipid homeostasis contributing to body-fat distribution.

Body-fat distribution is a risk factor for adverse cardiovascular health consequences. We analyzed the association of body-fat distribution, assessed by waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index, with 228,985 predicted coding and splice site variants available on exome arrays in up to 344,369 individuals from five major ancestries (discovery) and 132,177 European-ancestry individuals (validation). We identified 15 common (minor allele frequency, MAF ≥5%) and nine low-frequency or rare (MAF <5%) coding novel variants. Pathway/gene set enrichment analyses identified lipid particle, adiponectin, abnormal white adipose tissue physiology and bone development and morphology as important contributors to fat distribution, while cross-trait associations highlight cardiometabolic traits. In functional follow-up analyses, specifically in Drosophila RNAi-knockdowns, we observed a significant increase in the total body triglyceride levels for two genes (DNAH10 and PLXND1). We implicate novel genes in fat distribution, stressing the importance of interrogating low-frequency and protein-coding variants

Development and psychometric properties of a belief-based Physical Activity Questionnaire for Diabetic Patients (PAQ-DP)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study carried out to develop a scale for assessing diabetic patients' perceptions about physical activity and to test its psychometric properties (The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Diabetic Patients-PAQ-DP).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An item pool extracted from the Theory of Planned Behavior literature was generated. Then an expert panel evaluated the items by assessing content validity index and content validity ratio. Consequently exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to indicate the scale constructs. In addition reliability analyses including internal consistency and test-retest analysis were carried out.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In all a sample of 127 women with diabetes participated in the study. Twenty-two items were initially extracted from the literature. A six-factor solution (containing 19 items) emerged as a result of an exploratory factor analysis namely: instrumental attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, affective attitude, self-identity, and intention explaining 60.30% of the variance observed. Additional analyses indicated satisfactory results for internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0.54 to 0.8) and intraclass correlation coefficients (ranging from 0.40 to 0.92).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Diabetic Patients (PAQ-DP) is the first instrument that applies the Theory of Planned Behavior in its constructs. The findings indicated that the PAQ-DP is a reliable and valid measure for assessing physical activity perceptions and now is available and can be used in future studies.</p

The Impact of Brand Quality on Shareholder Wealth

This study examines the impact of brand quality on three components of shareholder wealth: stock returns, systematic risk, and idiosyncratic risk. The study finds that brand quality enhances shareholder wealth insofar as unanticipated changes in brand quality are positively associated with stock returns and negatively related to changes in idiosyncratic risk. However, unanticipated changes in brand quality can also erode shareholder wealth because they have a positive association with changes in systematic risk. The study introduces a contingency theory view to the marketing-finance interface by analyzing the moderating role of two factors that are widely followed by investors. The results show an unanticipated increase (decrease) in current-period earnings enhances (depletes) the positive impact of unanticipated changes in brand quality on stock returns and mitigates (enhances) their deleterious effects on changes in systematic risk. Similarly, brand quality is more valuable for firms facing increasing competition (i.e., unanticipated decreases in industry concentration). The results are robust to endogeneity concerns and across alternative models. The authors conclude by discussing the nuanced implications of their findings for shareholder wealth, reporting brand quality to investors, and its use in employee evaluation

Saturation in qualitative research: exploring its conceptualization and operationalization

Deposited on 20 October 2017 in Keele University Repository at: http://eprints.keele.ac.uk/4122/Saturation has attained widespread acceptance as a methodological principle in qualitative research. It is commonly taken to indicate that, on the basis of the data that have been collected or analysed hitherto, further data collection and/or analysis are unnecessary. However, there appears to be uncertainty as to how saturation should be conceptualized, and inconsistencies in its use. In this paper, we look to clarify the nature, purposes and uses of saturation, and in doing so add to theoretical debate on the role of saturation across different methodologies.Weidentify four distinct approaches to saturation, which differ in terms of the extent to which an inductive or a deductive logic is adopted, and the relative emphasis on data collection, data analysis, and theorizing. We explore the purposes saturation might serve in relation to these different approaches, and the implications for how and when saturation will be sought. In examining these issues, we highlight the uncertain logic underlying saturation- as essentially a predictive statement about the unobserved based on the observed, a judgement that, we argue, results in equivocation, and may in part explain the confusion surrounding its use.Weconclude that saturation should be operationalized in a way that is consistent with the research question(s), and the theoretical position and analytic framework adopted, but also that there should be some limit to its scope, so as not to risk saturation losing its coherence and potency if its conceptualization and uses are stretched too widely.sch_die52pub5265pub

L’utilisation de repères microstructuraux dans la mémorisation de pièces pour piano

Cette étude exploratoire porte sur l’apprentissage mnémonique de partitions de piano à l’aide de repères microstructuraux. Ce type de repères s’acquiert en prenant conscience de différentes micro-informations, tant sur le plan de la notation musicale que de sa réalisation instrumentale. Ils permettent d’identifier les singularités de la partition et de son jeu instrumental afin de mieux s’en souvenir. Deux objectifs sont poursuivis : 1. répertorier les divers types de microstructures utilisés par les pianistes pour mémoriser une partition ; 2. catégoriser les microstructures. Ensuite, ces repères font l’objet d’analyses de fréquence afin d’illustrer les préférences d’utilisation des pianistes ayant participé à l’étude. Les résultats obtenus ont permis d’observer que les pianistes ont utilisé sept types de repères microstructuraux pour mémoriser leur répertoire. Trois sont liés à la représentation de la notation musicale; deux sont responsables de la représentation de la réalisation instrumentale; puis les deux derniers favorisent la prise de conscience d’associations lors du travail mnémonique.In this exploratory study, the author examines aspects of the mnemonic process in the pianist’s assimilation of works, in particular through the use of micro-structural markers. These can be identified by analyzing the pianist’s awareness of significant details in the information relating both to musical notation and to the instrumental realization of this notation. The markers allow us to focus on singular features in the score and in on their transfer to instrumental playing, thus maximizing memorization. There are two goals to this study: 1. to harvest the different types of micro-structural markers that pianists use to memorize a score for their instrument; 2. to categorize these micro-structural markers. Then, they will be analyzed to determine their frequency and to illustrate how pianists who participated in the study preferred to use them. Results demonstrate that pianists used seven distinct types of micro-structural markers to memorize their scores. Three are related to the representation of musical notation; two refer to instrumental representation of the score; two others maximize the awareness of associations that are made within the mnemonic process