Consultation on the provision of music in Special schools in Wales, Summer 2021: Executive summary

Anthem, Live Music Now Wales and Disability Arts Cymru have been working together to strengthen musical provision for Special schools in Wales. As part of this initiative, a national online event ‘We are all musical’ was held in November 2021. This event included the presentation of summative overview data from a survey consultation of Special schools concerning both their current provision and ambitions for music

Reflections on the concept of musical development

‘The Sequence of Musical Development’ by Swanwick and Tillman was published in the British Journal of Music Education (BJME) in 1986. This year marks its 35th anniversary and provides an occasion to look back on the article’s content and legacy. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the antecedents for the article’s underlying concepts, as well as how our understanding of children and young people’s musical behaviours and development has evolved. Alternate and more nuanced perspectives, both available at the time and since, draw on an expanding, diverse, multidisciplinary research base. These enable us to have a better grasp of the strengths of the original, as well as what continues to need investigation

Singing and vocal development

Musical development begins pre-birth through the fetal experiences of the melody-like contouring of our mother’s voice. These earliest experiences form the foundation for subsequent musical, vocal, and linguistic behavior. Ongoing interactions between our individual neuropsychobiological development and the sounds and expectations of the maternal sociocultural environment continue to shape the development of vocal skills, including singing, throughout childhood and into adolescence. By puberty, self-identity (whether tending toward the positive or negative) in relation to the art and expectations of singing in different contexts is firmly established. If exposed to an appropriately nurturing environment, considerable singing skills are normally evidenced. The experience of negative comments during childhood, particularly from adults such as parents and teachers, can have a detrimental impact on singing behaviors and the realization of musical potential. Throughout these formative years from birth onward, individual singing development is usually incremental and positive, but can be inhibited by sociocultural factors

HFC Smuggling: Preventing the Illicit (and Lucrative) Sale of Greenhouse Gases

The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is a pivotal development in global cooperation to stem climate change. Through incorporating hydrofluorocarbons into the Montreal Protocol, the international community will be able to combat the deleterious effects of a common, yet potent, chemical. Nonetheless, the United States and its fellow parties will likely have to combat an illicit trade in these banned substances in the immediate future. Through lessons learned from the original Montreal Protocol, the United States can effectively combat smuggling and ensure the Kigali Amendment’s success

A systematic literature review of Chinese music education studies during 2007 to 2019

Based on findings from a large meta-data-based literature survey, this article is intended to provide a comprehensive synthesis of key features of China’s music education system as seen through the lens of n = 116 major research studies, drawn from a total of N = 3,257 high-impact Chinese journal articles published during 2007 to 2019. The synthesis suggests that (1) education reform, aesthetic education, Chinese traditional music and cultural identity were found to be the most prominent topics across all levels of formal music education; and (2) in most studies, government financial support, policy priorities, curriculum enforcement and paedagogical innovation are proposed as general cures to address perceptions of an unsatisfactory situation within music education. However, (3) by relating these findings to national statistics, a clear gap is identified between several research studies and actual social contexts, suggesting a possible deviation of academic communities from realistic educational and social challenges. Thus, external validity issues related to these studies are also discussed critically, along with their potential influence on views of what counts as Chinese music education in domestic and international research communities

'Sounds of Intent' : Mapping musical behaviour and development in children and young people with complex needs

This article reports on the first year of an Esmae Fairbairn Foundation-funded research project into the design and evaluation of an original 'framework' for mapping the behaviour and development in, and through, music for children with complex needs, specifically those with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). An initial four-month design and pilot phase critiqued and evaluated a framework that was grounded in video-based iterative analyses of individual case studies that had been collected during the previous two years. The piloting phase was followed by a sustained period of classroom-based music lesson observation in five special schools over a period of seven months. A total of 630 observations were made using the framework for 68 participants whose ages ranged from 4 years 7 months to 19 years 1 month. Subsequent analyses support the general design features of the observational framework and provide new evidence of PMLD musical behaviour and development

Exploring the culture of Greek children’s musical games in the school playground: An ethnographic study

This article reports findings from an ethnographic study investigating the culture of children’s musical games played in school playgrounds. The research took place in nine primary schools in Greece and lasted for 6 months. Data collection methods included open observation of children aged 6 to 11 years, focused small-group observation, semi-structured interviews of 53 children (aged 8–11 years), and video recordings of the children’s musical games. Analyses of the research data, in light of the relevant literature, revealed the physical and human geographies of musical games, gender preferences, transmission sources and processes, learning and teaching practices, improvisations and variations, and communication among participants. The article concludes with implications for music education research and practice

A Systematic Approach To Teaching Critical Thinking Skills To Electrical And Computer Engineering Undergraduates

Coursework that instills patterns of rigorous logical thought has long been a hallmark of the engineering curriculum.  However, today’s engineering students are expected to exhibit a wider range of thinking capabilities both to satisfy ABET requirements and to prepare the students to become successful practitioners.  This paper presents the initial results from a systematic effort to incorporate broader critical thinking instruction and assessment into electrical and computer engineering education as part of a university-wide quality enhancement program.  All incoming freshmen are given explicit and implicit instruction in critical thinking in ENGR 100: Introduction to Engineering and other engineering fundamentals courses, using the Paul-Elder framework of critical thinking to define and operationalize critical thinking.  This critical thinking foundation is reinforced later in the disciplinary courses so that students integrate critical thinking with the basic principles and practices of engineering.  In the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) program, at the sophomore level, students use critical thinking skills which were developed during their engineering fundamentals courses, to analyze requirements and constraints which would apply in real-world design projects.  At the junior level, similar use of critical thinking is applied in an introductory computing methods course; and at the senior level, critical thinking skills are again strengthened and assessed in the capstone design course and in the professional issues and current topics seminar.  The latter course emphasizes understanding of professional ethics and current topics in electrical and computer engineering.  Initial data from this pilot implementation indicates statistically significant improvement in critical thinking skills in ECE students who have progressed through this sequence, and as a side benefit, it appears that writing skills also improve

Decisions on the quality of piano performance: Evaluation of self and others

In common with other professional musicians, self-evaluation of practise and performance is an integral part of a pianist’s professional life. They will also have opportunities to listen to and evaluate the performances of others based on their own criteria. These self-constructed perspectives towards to a piano performance will have an influence on both self-evaluation and external evaluation, but whether differently or similarly is not known. Consequently, this research study aimed to explore how judgements on the perceived quality of a performance are undertaken by professional standard pianists and what criteria are applied, both with regards their own performances as well as the performance of others. Participants were six professional pianists (3 men, 3 women) who were based in the United Kingdom (Mean age = 31.5 years old. SD = 5.1). They were asked to play individually six trials of a piece of R. Schumann’s “Träumerei” Op. 15 No. 7 in a hired hall for recordings. Then, within 2 months, each participant was asked to come to a self-evaluation session to listen to and evaluate their own six recordings, using a Triadic method as a Repertory Grid. For the external evaluation focused session, the participants were asked to return again to evaluate a further six recordings made up of ‘best’ recordings as selected by each participant from their own individual self-evaluations. Analyses of the resultant data suggest that there was no significant difference between the participants in their overall ratings in the external phase, but that self-evaluation showed significant individual differences amongst several participants. The performance criteria in both self-evaluation and external evaluation predominately overlapped with each other in terms of musical factors, such as tone quality, phrasing, and pedalling. The ranking of the performances was highly correlated with perceptions of overall flow, tone quality and pedalling. It appears that pianists apply similar criteria to decide performance quality when evaluating their own performances as well as others