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

Determination of Constructed Pavement Layer Thicknesses Using Nondestructive Testing (NDT)

Using nondestructive testing (NDT) to measure the thickness of pavement layers can improve the overall life of a new concrete and/or asphalt pavement. Conventional test methods require the extraction of a core from the pavement section to verify its thickness. Currently, two NDT technologies are commercially available which eliminate or reduce the need to core the existing pavement for thickness verification. The MIT-Scan-T2 (T2) utilizes magnetic pulse induction coupled with preset metal plates to obtain a thickness value. Measurements can be obtained quickly to an accuracy of +/– 2 mm. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) uses electromagnetic radiation to determine pavement layer thickness. However, GPR data need to be calibrated with an actual core during the post-processing phase to obtain the highest accuracy. Additionally, the dielectric properties of pavement sections being assessed with GPR must first stabilize to accurately measure thickness. Generally, stabilization occurs approximately 28 days after the initial placement of the pavement

Comparison of System Call Representations for Intrusion Detection

Over the years, artificial neural networks have been applied successfully in many areas including IT security. Yet, neural networks can only process continuous input data. This is particularly challenging for security-related non-continuous data like system calls. This work focuses on four different options to preprocess sequences of system calls so that they can be processed by neural networks. These input options are based on one-hot encoding and learning word2vec or GloVe representations of system calls. As an additional option, we analyze if the mapping of system calls to their respective kernel modules is an adequate generalization step for (a) replacing system calls or (b) enhancing system call data with additional information regarding their context. However, when performing such preprocessing steps it is important to ensure that no relevant information is lost during the process. The overall objective of system call based intrusion detection is to categorize sequences of system calls as benign or malicious behavior. Therefore, this scenario is used to evaluate the different input options as a classification task. The results show, that each of the four different methods is a valid option when preprocessing input data, but the use of kernel modules only is not recommended because too much information is being lost during the mapping process.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, submitted to CISIS 201

Summer Cocktail Forage Research in the Panhandle of Nebraska

Four annual forage mixtures containing brown mid- rib sorghum sudangrass or German foxtail millet, cowpeas or soybeans, and forage collards were compared to the sorghum sudangrass or millet as monocultures in the Nebraska High Plains on dryland acres to determine the tonnage, crude protein, and digestibility available for beef cattle. Th e forage mixtures and the millet resulted in greater crude protein than the sorghum sudangrass. Total digestible nutrients of the mixers were similar. Sorghum sudangrass resulted in the most tonnage. These forage options could have been hayed or windrow grazed in the fall and would have likely resulted in 1.5– 2.0 lb/d gain for 500 lb calves. Grazing these forages in the summer would have likely resulted in better quality but would require rotational grazing management. Agronomic impacts of these mixtures on the subsequent crop were not measured. Foxtail millet was the most economical crop to produce

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

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