A study on the impact of a music looping technology intervention upon pre-service generalist teachers’ self-efficacy to teach music in primary schools

In Australia, in the current climate of economic rationalism in which there has been an increasing emphasis on literacy and numeracy, funding for specialised subjects like music has been reducing. As a result, generalist classroom teachers are being given more responsibility for delivering effective music education in primary schools. However, the time dedicated to training pre-service teachers in music education in tertiary institutions has diminished. Further, time constraints involved in building pre-service knowledge and skills in teaching music may impact many pre-service teachers’ beliefs about their ability to teach music. Within these constraints, digital technology may provide a key to improving pre-service teacher training in music education in universities, resulting in better quality delivery of music in schools. This study investigates the potential of digital looping technology to build generalist pre-service teachers’ knowledge of and efficacy for teaching music in primary schools. The study involved three stages of investigation: Stage One: an experimental and control intervention involving measuring the self-efficacy of pre-service teachers before and after they completed one unit of study incorporating looping technology; Stage Two: video analysis in a practicum setting; and Stage three: participant self-reflections following the practicum to investigate the transferability of pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy from university-based learning to classroom practice. Based upon the study, this thesis makes a number of recommendations for future practice in terms of generalist pre-service teacher training, as well as recommendations for future research

The Early Royal Society and Visual Culture

Recent studies have fruitfully examined the intersection between early modern science and visual culture by elucidating the functions of images in shaping and disseminating scientific knowledge. Given its rich archival sources, it is possible to extend this line of research in the case of the Royal Society to an examination of attitudes towards images as artefacts –manufactured objects worth commissioning, collecting and studying. Drawing on existing scholarship and material from the Royal Society Archives, I discuss Fellows’ interests in prints, drawings, varnishes, colorants, images made out of unusual materials, and methods of identifying the painter from a painting. Knowledge of production processes of images was important to members of the Royal Society, not only as connoisseurs and collectors, but also as those interested in a Baconian mastery of material processes, including a “history of trades”. Their antiquarian interests led to discussion of painters’ styles, and they gradually developed a visual memorial to an institution through portraits and other visual records.AH/M001938/1 (AHRC

Reactive oxygen species in phagocytic leukocytes

Phagocytic leukocytes consume oxygen and generate reactive oxygen species in response to appropriate stimuli. The phagocyte NADPH oxidase, a multiprotein complex, existing in the dissociated state in resting cells becomes assembled into the functional oxidase complex upon stimulation and then generates superoxide anions. Biochemical aspects of the NADPH oxidase are briefly discussed in this review; however, the major focus relates to the contributions of various modes of microscopy to our understanding of the NADPH oxidase and the cell biology of phagocytic leukocytes