Historical approaches to Merseybeat

This article examines the connections between place and sound with a particular concentration upon Liverpool and ‘Merseybeat’. The article examines the ways in which accounts of the city’s musical sound in the early 1960s have been presented in journalistic and critical reception of Liverpool’s popular music. It considers the assumptions behind those accounts, assesses the validity of the explanations they offer and traces the evolution of academic, journalistic and populist discourses about Merseybeat. The contributions can be organized into three categories (delivery, affinity and diversity) which are broadly distinctive perspectives that usefully indicate the different ways in which the sound of Merseybeat has been approached

Displaying 3D images: algorithms for single-image random-dot

A new, simple, and symmetric algorithm can be implemented that results in higher levels of detail in solid objects than previously possible with autostereograms. In a stereoscope, an optical instrument similar to binoculars, each eye views a different picture and thereby receives the specific image that would have arisen naturally. An early suggestion for a color stereo computer display involved a rotating filter wheel held in front of the eyes. In contrast, this article describes a method for viewing on paper or on an ordinary computer screen without special equipment, although it is limited to the display of 3D monochromatic objects. (The image can be colored, say, for artistic reasons, but the method we describe does not allow colors to be allocated in a way that corresponds to an arbitrary coloring of the solid object depicted.) The image can easily be constructed by computer from any 3D scene or solid object description

The problem of assessing problem solving: can comparative judgement help?

School mathematics examination papers are typically dominated by short, structured items that fail to assess sustained reasoning or problem solving. A contributory factor to this situation is the need for student work to be marked reliably by a large number of markers of varied experience and competence. We report a study that tested an alternative approach to assessment, called comparative judgement, which may represent a superior method for assessing open-ended questions that encourage a range of unpredictable responses. An innovative problem solving examination paper was specially designed by examiners, evaluated by mathematics teachers, and administered to 750 secondary school students of varied mathematical achievement. The students’ work was then assessed by mathematics education experts using comparative judgement as well as a specially designed, resourceintensive marking procedure. We report two main findings from the research. First, the examination paper writers, when freed from the traditional constraint of producing a mark scheme, designed questions that were less structured and more problem-based than is typical in current school mathematics examination papers. Second, the comparative judgement approach to assessing the student work proved successful by our measures of inter-rater reliability and validity. These findings open new avenues for how school mathematics, and indeed other areas of the curriculum, might be assessed in the future

Andy Bennett (ed.), Remembering Woodstock

Of all the events associated with the counterculture, none is as firmly embedded in common cultural memory as the Woodstock Festival of August 1969. In its perceived ideological trajectory, musical content and visual imagery, it has represented, for more than forty years, the most powerful evidence of the union between rock and politics. Michael Wadleigh’s documentary movie (released in 1970) and Joni Mitchell’s song (and its subsequent hit versions by Matthews Southern Comfort and Crosby, St..

Burning matches, lifting latches: Sociology, popular culture and the Beatles

The research output collected together in this volume presents a social scientific investigation of elements of the career and music of the Beatles. Through its use of sociological and social psychological perspectives, it is able to offer fresh insights into one of popular culture's more familiar narratives. It maintains that an adequate understanding of the group's achievements, and the debates and issues they provoked, can only be achieved by rigorously locating them within the context of the social and cultural forces in which they emerged and by which they were constrained. While it remains true that much may be learned about the group from individual or specialist sources, the significance of this research lies in its strategy of considering those contributions as a whole, and subjecting the body of knowledge they contain to a systematic and critical analysis. In doing so, the research reveals much about particular facets of the Beatles' career, encourages further scrutiny of some of the conventional explanations of the group's success, and emphasises the validity of such examinations in a period when the personal and professional activities of its members continue to be consumed with great enthusiasm

L’histoire, l’endroit et le moment : le déclenchement de la British Invasion

Après une année ponctuée de succès retentissants au Royaume-Uni, les Beatles connurent, en 1964, un succès encore plus considérable aux États-Unis. Non seulement les ventes de leurs disques et leur popularité atteignirent des niveaux sans précédent, mais encore, l’acceptation du groupe par le public américain marqua le début de ce que l’on appelle aujourd’hui la British Invasion, des vagues d’artistes britanniques leur emboîtant le pas pour se lancer à la conquête du marché américain. Si l’accès des Beatles à une renommée internationale a été largement documenté, peu d’auteurs se sont intéressés aux circonstances de l’engagement de trois semaines qu’ils ont honoré en France en janvier 1964. En effet, quand les Beatles arrivèrent à Paris pour se produire à l’Olympia, ils n’étaient guère connus en dehors du Royaume-Uni. Quand ils quittèrent la ville, trois semaines plus tard, ils avaient amorcé la conquête de l’Amérique (et du reste du monde) qui allait bouleverser le cours des musiques populaires pour les décennies à venir. Dans cet article, nous cherchons à comprendre en quoi cet épisode parisien peut être considéré comme une étape essentielle dans l’évolution des Beatles, mais aussi dans le basculement qui allait s’ensuivre en termes du jeu imprévu des influences musicales entre les États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni.After a year of spectacular musical achievements in Britain through 1963, the Beatles enjoyed even greater success across the US in the following year. Not only were their record sales and personal popularity there unprecedented, but the group’s acceptance by US audiences signalled the beginnings of what became known as the British Invasion, as waves of performers followed in their footsteps to dominate the lucrative American market over the next few years. Although the Beatles’ transition from domestic to international fame has been well documented, little attention has been paid to the circumstances of the group’s three-weeks engagement in France in January 1964. When the Beatles arrived in Paris to appear at the Olympia Theatre they were little known outside Britain. When they left the city, three weeks later, they had begun a triumphant conquest of America (and the world) that would substantially shift the trajectory of popular music for decades to come. In this paper, we argue that the role of Paris in this process was not incidental, but that it provided a crucial bridging point in the evolution of the Beatles, and in an unforeseen shift of musical influence

L’histoire, l’endroit et le moment : le déclenchement de la British Invasion

Après une année ponctuée de succès retentissants au Royaume-Uni, les Beatles connurent, en 1964, un succès encore plus considérable aux États-Unis. Non seulement les ventes de leurs disques et leur popularité atteignirent des niveaux sans précédent, mais encore, l’acceptation du groupe par le public américain marqua le début de ce que l’on appelle aujourd’hui la British Invasion, des vagues d’artistes britanniques leur emboîtant le pas pour se lancer à la conquête du marché américain. Si l’accès des Beatles à une renommée internationale a été largement documenté, peu d’auteurs se sont intéressés aux circonstances de l’engagement de trois semaines qu’ils ont honoré en France en janvier 1964. En effet, quand les Beatles arrivèrent à Paris pour se produire à l’Olympia, ils n’étaient guère connus en dehors du Royaume-Uni. Quand ils quittèrent la ville, trois semaines plus tard, ils avaient amorcé la conquête de l’Amérique (et du reste du monde) qui allait bouleverser le cours des musiques populaires pour les décennies à venir. Dans cet article, nous cherchons à comprendre en quoi cet épisode parisien peut être considéré comme une étape essentielle dans l’évolution des Beatles, mais aussi dans le basculement qui allait s’ensuivre en termes du jeu imprévu des influences musicales entre les États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni.After a year of spectacular musical achievements in Britain through 1963, the Beatles enjoyed even greater success across the US in the following year. Not only were their record sales and personal popularity there unprecedented, but the group’s acceptance by US audiences signalled the beginnings of what became known as the British Invasion, as waves of performers followed in their footsteps to dominate the lucrative American market over the next few years. Although the Beatles’ transition from domestic to international fame has been well documented, little attention has been paid to the circumstances of the group’s three-weeks engagement in France in January 1964. When the Beatles arrived in Paris to appear at the Olympia Theatre they were little known outside Britain. When they left the city, three weeks later, they had begun a triumphant conquest of America (and the world) that would substantially shift the trajectory of popular music for decades to come. In this paper, we argue that the role of Paris in this process was not incidental, but that it provided a crucial bridging point in the evolution of the Beatles, and in an unforeseen shift of musical influence

Teaching the substitutive conception of the equals sign

A cumulative body of research has shown that children typically shift from an operational to a relational conception of the equals sign as they move through schooling. Jones (2008) argued that a truly relational conception of the equals sign comprises a substitutive component and a sameness component. Here we present two studies that build on this argument. The first investigated how the equals sign is typically presented to primary children in England, and we report that in the main an operational conception seems to be promoted. The second study measured the impact of a specially designed intervention on early secondary children's conceptions of the equals sign. Pre- and post-test data revealed that the intervention promoted substitutive and sameness components of symbolic equivalence. We consider the theoretical and pedagogical implications of the results

Measuring conceptual understanding: the case of fractions

Developing measures of the quality of understanding of a given mathematical concept has traditionally been a difficult and resource-intensive process. We tested an alternative approach, called Comparative Judgement (CJ), that is based not on psychometric instruments or clinical interviews but collective expertise. Eight mathematics education experts used CJ to assess 25 student responses to a test designed to probe conceptual understanding of fractions. Analysis revealed the CJ assessment process yielded high internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and validity. We discuss the implications of the results for using CJ to measure mathematical understanding in a variety of domains and contexts