The perceptions of non music staff and senior management of the impact of the implementation of the Musical Futures approach on the whole school

This research aimed to provide an account of the impact of the Musical Futures approach on the wider school community in Musical Futures ‘Champion Schools’. Questionnaires were completed by 344 non-music teachers. Interviews were undertaken with members of senior management teams. The majority of staff indicated that Musical Futures had had a positive impact on student motivation, well-being, self-esteem and confidence and had encouraged students to work together. There was less agreement that it had improved student concentration, organisation and students’ attitudes towards learning and academic progression. The interviews provided deeper insights into the issues relating to implementation

What impact does teaching music informally in the classroom have on teachers, and their pedagogy?

The aim of this research was to explore the impact of the adoption of the Musical Futures (MF) approach on secondary school music teachers working in MF Champion schools. The research took place over 3 years in 3 phases with 28 teachers completing questionnaires exploring the impact on their confidence, skills and pedagogy and 30 being interviewed individually. Data from the interviews provided greater insights into the questionnaire responses. Most teachers reported that MF had helped them to become a more effective teacher, more confident in teaching music and had increased their enjoyment. MF changed the nature of teaching and learning with a more student-led approach being adopted. Managing this workshop approach on a daily basis, for some teachers, was exhausting and stressful. Overall, the adoption of the MF approach had a wide range of benefits for teachers but there were issues relating to the logistics of managing small group work

Can the adoption of informal approaches to learning music in school music lessons promote musical progression?

The aim of this research was to explore the impact of the adoption of the Musical Futures approach on the musical progression of students in Musical Futures’ Champion schools. The research took place over three years in three phases with 733 students and 28 music teachers completing questionnaires. Data from the interviews with 39 staff and focus groups of 325 students provided greater insights into the questionnaire responses. Overall, teachers reported that Musical Futures had enhanced the musical progression of their students and increased take up at Key Stage 4. In some cases this had led to changes in the qualifications on offer with an emphasis on those which were vocational rather than academic. This created some tensions in catering for the needs of different groups of students who had a range of different musical skills

Teachers’ perceptions of the impact on students of the Musical Futures approach

Music education has faced considerable challenges in trying to bridge the gap between music in young people's lives and that taking place in the classroom. The ‘Musical Futures’ (MF) initiative aimed to devise new and imaginative ways of engaging young people, aged 11–19, in music activities through a process of informal learning based on popular music. This research aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions of the impact of adopting the MF approach on students’ learning and attainment. Twenty-eight music teachers completed questionnaires and 30 were interviewed. The majority of music staff agreed that since doing MF, students demonstrated higher levels of attainment, greater enjoyment of and positive attitudes towards music lessons, enhanced musical and performance skills, team working, concentration, confidence, listening skills, musical understanding and independent learning

Secondary school pupils' preferences for different types of structured grouping practices

The aim of this paper is to explore pupils’ preferences for particular types of grouping practices an area neglected in earlier research focusing on the personal and social outcomes of ability grouping. The sample comprised over 5,000 year 9 pupils (aged 13-14 years) in 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools in England. The schools represented three levels of ability grouping in the lower school (years 7 to 9). Pupils responded to a questionnaire which explored the types of grouping that they preferred and the reasons for their choices. The majority of pupils preferred setting, although this was mediated by their set placement, type of school, socio-economic status and gender. The key reason given for this preference was that it enabled work to be matched to learning needs. The paper considers whether there are other ways of achieving this avoiding the negative social and personal outcomes of setting for some pupils

Metre-per-second microfluidic flow velocimetry with dual beam optical coherence tomography

A novel dual beam Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) instrument has been developed for high velocity flow measurement, principally in microfluidics applications. The scanned dual beam approach creates a pair of image-frames separated by a small spatiotemporal offset. Metre-per-second flow measurement is achieved by rapid re-imaging by the second beam allowing for particle tracking between each image-frame of the pair. Flow at 1.06 m/s using a single optical access port has been measured, more than two orders of magnitude larger than previously reported OCT systems, at centimetre depth and with millimetre scale depth of field within a microfluidic chip, whilst simultaneously imaging the microfluidic channel structure

2D spatially-resolved depth-section microfluidic flow velocimetry using dual beam OCT

A dual beam optical coherence tomography (OCT) instrument has been developed for flow measurement that offers advantages over microscope derived imaging techniques. It requires only a single optical access port, allows simultaneous imaging of the microfluidic channel, does not require fluorescent seed particles, and can provide a millimetre-deep depth-section velocity profile (as opposed to horizontal-section). The dual beam instrument performs rapid re-sampling of particle positions, allowing measurement of faster flows. In this paper, we develop the methods and processes necessary to make 2D quantitative measurements of the flow-velocity using dual beam OCT and present exemplar results in a microfluidic chip. A 2D reference measurement of the Poiseuille flow in a microfluidic channel is presented over a spanwise depth range of 700 μm and streamwise length of 1600 μm with a spatial resolution of 10 μm, at velocities up to 50 mm/s. A measurement of a more complex flow field is also demonstrated in a sloped microfluidic section

Oscillatory behaviour in a lattice prey-predator system

Using Monte Carlo simulations we study a lattice model of a prey-predator system. We show that in the three-dimensional model populations of preys and predators exhibit coherent periodic oscillations but such a behaviour is absent in lower-dimensional models. Finite-size analysis indicate that amplitude of these oscillations is finite even in the thermodynamic limit. In our opinion, this is the first example of a microscopic model with stochastic dynamics which exhibits oscillatory behaviour without any external driving force. We suggest that oscillations in our model are induced by some kind of stochastic resonance.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, Phys.Rev.E (Nov. 1999

Pupils' perceptions of informal learning in school music lessons

Music education has faced considerable challenges in trying to bridge the gap between music in young people’s lives and that taking place in the classroom. The ‘Musical Futures’ initiative aimed to devise new and imaginative ways of engaging young people, aged 11–19, in music activities through a process of informal learning based initially on popular music. This research aimed to explore pupils’ perceptions of the impact of adopting the Musical Futures approach on students’ learning and attainment. 671 students completed a questionnaire and 171 participated in focus group interviews to establish their perceptions of informal learning. The findings showed that the adoption of the Musical Futures approach enhanced student interest and confidence and increased their musical skills. Students appreciated the control that they had over their learning but some raised issues about working in groups and the level of support that teachers were able to offer

Teachers' and students' music preferences for secondary school music lessons: reasons and implications

This paper is based on the data collected from a longitudinal study of seven maintained, secondary schools in England that have adopted Musical Futures as an approach to teaching music. The research had a particular focus on key stage 3 (11–14). For the purposes of this paper, data gained from 18 music staff and 325 student interview transcriptions were reviewed to answer research questions about the music preferences of teachers and students in the context of school music lessons. The data indicated that when teachers chose music they were particularly conscious of difficulty whereas student choices, when permitted, were based solely on liking. Teachers’ choices were often informed by inclusion and feasibility. The music students enjoyed depended on how it was incorporated into the lesson rather than purely on style. Some implications of how music is categorised and chosen are discussed