Innate talents: reality or myth?

Talents that selectively facilitate the acquisition of high levels of skill are said to be present in some children but not others. The evidence for this includes biological correlates of specific abilities, certain rare abilities in autistic savants, and the seemingly spontaneous emergence of exceptional abilities in young children, but there is also contrary evidence indicating an absence of early precursors of high skill levels. An analysis of positive and negative evidence and arguments suggests that differences in early experiences, preferences, opportunities, habits, training, and practice are the real determinants of excellence

Teaching non-readers with severe learning difficulties to recognise words: The effective use of symbols in a new technique

Despite the apparent advantages of incorporating logographic symbols in procedures intended to teach children with severe learning difficulties to recognise words, such procedures have never proved successful. Their failure has been attributed to a blocking effect that is induced by the additional cues. The blocking effect account predicts that any method that involves introducing additional stimulus cues will be inefficient for teaching word recognition, compared with a word alone method. A new technique was devised in an attempt to surmount this problem. The basis of the technique draws on a range of research areas. Children who had no reading skills and had previously failed to gain any sight vocabulary were taught to recognise 12 words. An experiment compared a word alone method with two variants of the new technique. Both versions were more successful than the word alone method at teaching the children to recognise the words. The findings refute the view that any procedure that incorporates additional cues will necessarily be ineffective. For students who have hitherto made no progress at all in learning to recognise words, the new technique offers an effective instructional procedure

Levels of significance attributed to musical and non-musical factors of individual difference by classroom music teachers

This study explores the relative significance attached to musical and non-musical factors of individual difference when rated by a group of secondary school music teachers in the contexts of teaching approaches and attainment outcomes. Participants completed two Q-sorts in which 20 statements reflecting both high and low characteristics on ten factors of individual difference were rated according to perceived significance. Results suggest that music teachers may believe non-musical factors to be of greater significance, both in terms of influencing their teaching approaches and in determining the outcomes of teaching, than musical factors

A Q study of music teachers' attitudes towards the significance of individual differences for teaching and learning in music

Classroom teachers' beliefs and attitudes regarding the role and significance of individual differences have received relatively little attention in the literature to date, notwithstanding the well-documented importance both of teachers' beliefs and factors of individual difference for the learning and teaching process. The purpose of this study was to explore the belief patterns of a small group (N = 8) of Scottish secondary school classroom music teachers in relation to the significance of 10 factors of individual difference among pupils for learning and teaching in music within the curriculum. Participants completed two Q-sorts, one relating to teaching approaches in music and one to attainment in musical tasks. Both sorts used an identical set of items. Results suggest that a small number of 'typical' belief patterns could be identified in each of the two contexts, and that the focus of study makes future development of this investigation appropriate. It appears that some music teachers may focus more on perceived strengths amongst their pupils while others concentrate instead on areas of weaknesses. The implications for practice in music education of these positions are discussed

Structural Elucidation of Agrochemicals and Related Derivatives Using Infrared Ion Spectroscopy

[Image: see text] Agrochemicals frequently undergo various chemical and metabolic transformation reactions in the environment that often result in a wide range of derivates that must be comprehensively characterized to understand their toxicity profiles and their persistence and outcome in the environment. In the development phase, this typically involves a major effort in qualitatively identifying the correct chemical isomer(s) of these derivatives from the many isomers that could potentially be formed. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy are often used in attempts to characterize such environment transformation products. However, challenges in confidently correlating chemical structures to detected compounds in mass spectrometry data and sensitivity/selectivity limitations of NMR frequently lead to bottlenecks in identification. In this study, we use an alternative approach, infrared ion spectroscopy, to demonstrate the identification of hydroxylated derivatives of two plant protection compounds (azoxystrobin and benzovindiflupyr) contained at low levels in tomato and spinach matrices. Infrared ion spectroscopy is an orthogonal tandem mass spectrometry technique that combines the sensitivity and selectivity of mass spectrometry with structural information obtained by infrared spectroscopy. Furthermore, IR spectra can be computationally predicted for candidate molecular structures, enabling the tentative identification of agrochemical derivatives and other unknowns in the environment without using physical reference standards

Challenges in Storying a Musical Lifeworld: A Commentary

One of the major shifts in music education research over the past decade or so has been the emergence of a diverse range of studies that makes full use of available qualitative research methodologies. This trend has emerged alongside an increased awareness and confidence among music education researchers to engage in qualitative approaches that have been relatively mainstream in the wider world of educational research, but which were relatively slow to be adopted by the world of music education - at least in its published journals. Furthermore, this expanded perspective on research methods within music education has been part of a much wider interest in the use of educational research data to inform the actions of national and local government policy makers as they engage with educational reform, often badged under the umbrella of evidence-based or research-based practice (e.g., Davies, 1999; Oakley, 2002; Oakley, Gough, Oliver&Thomas, 2005