The Practice Of Teaching Therapeutic Songwriting: A Survey Of Educators And Internship Directors

The purpose of this study was to determine how therapeutic songwriting is currently being taught within American Music Therapy Association-approved music therapy programs and national roster internship sites. An online questionnaire was distributed to determine if songwriting is being taught, where within the curricula it is included, what methods educators employ, and what specific songwriting techniques are being taught to students. Respondents (n = 84) included music therapy program directors and music therapy faculty from AMTA approved schools, and internship supervisors and internship directors from AMTA roster internship sites. Results indicated that songwriting is being taught to some extent by the majority of university programs and internship sites through a variety of methods that cover a range of methods and techniques. Open-ended responses demonstrated a need for clarification of the expected songwriting competence of students, and that respondents believe a greater emphasis should be placed on songwriting education. The study also addressed recommendations for future research and considerations for university programs and internship sites

Once Upon A Time: The Power Of Perspective And Using Fairy Tales To Teach Elementary Students About Empathy And Perspective-Taking

This thesis contains an exploration into the ability of children’s literature, specifically fractured fairy tales, to teach elementary students about empathy and the importance of perspective-taking. Empathy is the cognitive and affective ability to see a situation from another person’s frame of reference. The following research examines the ability of fractured fairy tales, fairy tales told from an alternate perspective, to influence the empathetic responses that children have to characters formerly labeled as villains. Research was conducted in a second grade classroom using the well-known fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs. Findings from this study indicate that fractured fairy tales do impact how elementary students feel about certain characters and plot developments. Instructional implications indicate that fractured fairy tales can be a powerful tool to use in elementary classrooms for the purpose of teaching children about empathy and perspective-taking

Predator And Environmental Effects On The Polymorphic Egg Masses Of Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum)

Polymorphisms may be maintained if selection intensity and gene flow vary across a species’geographic range. Jelly coats of amphibian eggs are under many different selective forces,such as predators and external environment interactions. Spotted salamanders (Ambystomamaculatum) have polymorphic egg masses that are either clear or opaque depending on the presence or absence of hydrophobic protein crystals in the outer egg layer. This study investigated how different predator communities and environmental parameters influence the distribution of the polymorphic egg masses in high and low elevations of North Carolina. I conducted surveys of A. maculatum clutches in breeding ponds and recorded numbers of clear and opaque egg masses, as well as the presence of predator and water chemistry in seven North Carolina counties. I found that egg masses at high elevation sites were predominately opaque (~82%), whereas egg masses at low elevation sites were predominately clear (~98%). Although water chemistry (pH, conductance) varied greatly between high and low elevation locations, water chemistry was correlated with egg polymorphism only in the mountains. At both elevations, locations with greater predator occupancy tended to have higher proportions of opaque egg masses. These results suggest the selective forces shaping the distribution of A. maculatum egg masses include both predator and physiochemical forces, but the additive effects of both stressors may drive the high ratios of opaque egg masses

North Carolina's federalists in an evolving public sphere, 1790-1810

Frustrated by electoral defeat at the hands of Jefferson and his allies in 1800, North Carolina’s Federalists devised a plan in 1802 to send the Minerva, a Raleigh newspaper edited by William Boylan, to leading Federalists across the state. These Federalist leaders, including Duncan Cameron, William R. Davie, and Alfred Moore, all prominent politicians and lawyers, believed that the public mind had been corrupted by the newspaper propaganda of the Jeffersonian Republicans. The dissemination of the Minerva, however, could restore the public to a deferential position as well as increase their knowledge about the true state of political affairs. Though the newspapers found their way to each judicial district in North Carolina, they failed to transform the public sphere. The editor of the Minerva, William Boylan, increased the rancor of his partisan invective throughout 1802 and 1803, even though Federalist electoral success still remained elusive. Boylan also pursued the position of state printer, a job which he and his uncle had held for a number of years, but which had been given to Joseph Gales, an Englishman and Republican editor of the Raleigh Register. When Boylan failed to obtain the position of state printer in 1804, he became increasingly bitter toward Gales. When Gales accused Boylan of burning down the press of the Raleigh Register, Boylan responded by beating Gales savagely on the streets of Raleigh in 1804. Boylan, humbled in court by a fine in 1805, retreated from his former partisanship as his Federalist comrades abandoned him because of his attack on Gales. The Federalists, therefore, failed in their attempt to control the public sphere because they could not imitate Jeffersonian propaganda without betraying their conceptions of disinterestedness, virtue, and reason

Ludwig Schuncke (1810-1834) and his piano music

The document explores the life and selected piano music of Ludwig Schuncke (1810-1834), the early nineteenth-century pianist, composer and close associate of Robert Schumann. Schuncke was one of the founding members of the Neue Zeitschrift fiir Musik; the dedication of Schumann's Toccata op. 7 bears his name as well. Other topics include Schuncke's relationship to Robert Schumann, the influence each had on the other's work, and discussions of several of Schuncke's most important piano works. The document places Schuncke's works historically and stylistically as early post-Beethovenian compositions, and examines their role in the early development of Romantic music. Period letters, concert programs and newspaper articles in the original German and in translation enhance the picture of Schuncke's early life and especially his last and most momentous year in Leipzig with Schumann. Furthermore, they provide a glimpse into early nineteenth-century musical life

Predictors of teachers’ emotion language and its association with toddlers’ social emotional competence

The current study examined teachers’ emotion language (verbalization of emotions using labeling, questioning, explaining, and minimizing language) within naturally-occurring teacher–toddler interactions with 28 teachers and 115 toddlers in 28 toddler early childhood education classrooms. First, this study explored relationships between teachers’ beliefs about toddlers and their emotions, teachers’ knowledge about toddlers’ development, and teachers’ characteristics (such as education, experience, and ethnicity) predicting teachers’ use of emotion language. Second, this study assessed associations between teachers’ emotion language and toddlers’ social emotional competence. Analyses controlled for program quality, child age, and child gender. Results suggest that aspects of teachers’ beliefs about toddlers and their emotions, teachers’ knowledge, and teachers’ characteristics are predictive of teachers’ emotion language. Toddlers in classrooms with teachers who used emotion minimizing were rated as exhibiting less social emotional competence in toddler classrooms. Implications regarding the connection between teachers’ beliefs and knowledge to their practice, and the potential effects of teachers’ emotion language on toddlers’ social emotional functioning in classrooms are discussed

An investigation of the effects of two training programs on selected cardio-respiratory variables of college women

The total fitness of an individual should be the aim of every physical educator. Physical fitness, in particular, has been emphasized as an accepted objective of physical education throughout its history(2). Only through exercise and training can one's fitness level be raised. Extensive research has been conducted using various types and methods of training to improve levels of fitness. According to Morehouse and Miller(15), the method of training should be related to the dominant feature of the event. The training in this study stressed endurance as the primary factor being developed. Endurance may be defined as "the ability to continue work.” (16:26) In order to increase the capacity of the individual to continue work, the theory of overload was practiced. This advocates developing the individual by increasing the intensity of the activity. Morehouse and Rasch state that endurance is limited by two factors: "the willingness to work on in spite of the pain of fatigue, and the capacity of the homeostatic mechanism to make rapid and extensive adjustments within the functioning organism.” (16:25) in light of the latter of these two limiting factors, the cardio-respiratory functions were studied to observe the effects of the training upon the body

Teachers' expression of mental state talk in Head Start classrooms

This study examined teachers' use of four categories of mental state talk (verbalizations of mental processes using emotion terms, cognition terms, desire terms, and perception terms) in approximately hour-long observations in 34 Head Start classrooms. Transcriptions of teacher-child interactions were coded utterance by utterance for teachers' expression of the four categories of mental state talk terms, the sentence type the term was used within, the referent of the mental state term, and the classroom activity context within which the teacher was interacting with children. Results indicate that teachers used varying amounts of overall mental state talk and categories of mental state talk, and teachers' used of mental state talk differed depending on the sentence type, referent, and classroom activity contexts. Teachers were more likely to use emotion and cognition terms within statements than within questions, and teachers were more likely to refer to their own emotions than to children's emotions. Differences in teachers' use of categories of mental state talk were found to be associated with teachers' characteristics and observed classroom quality as assessed by the CLASS; teachers in classrooms rated higher in Emotional Support (specifically, Positive Climate and Regard for Student Perspectives) used more emotion terms. Future research and implications for teachers' professional development are discussed

A search for determinants of the authoritarian parenting style

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to find determinants of the authoritarian parenting style and to develop a model of how determinants contribute to the expression of the style. To accomplish this goal, a five-stage, semi-structured, intensive interview procedure was developed. The general research question was: How do authoritarian parents come to utilize the authoritarian style? Three research questions were formed: (a) Have authoritarian parents experienced authoritarian parenting themselves? (b) How have authoritarian parents reacted to conflict with their own parents? (c) Is the dominant conflict style that children adopt in interaction with their parents linked to the later demonstration of the authoritarian style

Landscape-scale effects of intercropping switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) and Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda) on rodent community structure and population demographics

Currently, U.S. state and federal mandates are attempting to lower fossil fuel consumption to reduce dependency on foreign oils and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Intercropping switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) in southern pine forest is a potential way to grow and harvest a biofuel feedstock without encumbering additional arable land. Rodents are important components of forest ecosystems, and intercropping switchgrass changes the understory vegetation composition and structure, which could influence rodent community structure and population demographics. To examine the sustainability of an intercropping management system, I examined whether intercropping switchgrass in intensively managed loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantations affected rodent community structure and population demographics in a large-scale, landscape experiment. Thus, I conducted seven intensive live-trapping sessions June-August 2012 on three intensively managed pine stands (control) and three intensively managed pine stands intercropped with switchgrass. Peromyscus spp. and Sigmodon hispidus were the most common species trapped on both treatment types. Intercropped stands had lower rodent community evenness (t = 2.79, df = 4, P = 0.02) and diversity (t = 2.64, df = 4, P = 0.03) than control stands. Sigmodon hispidus abundance was significantly higher (F1, 4 = 16.20, P = 0.02) in intercropped stands and contributed to over 86% of dissimilarity between treatments while no other species were influenced. However, there was no treatment effect on survival and recruitment. My findings indicate that intercropping switchgrass in managed pine plantations may have altered rodent community diversity by altering evenness and increasing abundance of S. hispidus, but not other species in the rodent community. Because S. hispidus is a native rodent which is commonly the most abundant rodent in southeastern pine forests, a switchgrass intercropping system to produce biofuel feedstock might be a sustainable option for planting switchgrass