Statistics ofRILM: Répertoire International de Littéerature Musicale

Commonly referred to asRILM Abstracts of Music Literature orRILM, theRILM database is published in printed, online, and CD-ROM formats. This international musicological bibliography of scholarly writings in 202 languages on music and related disciplines is classified by topic and includes original-language titles; title translations in English; full bibliographic information; abstracts in English; author, journal, and subject indexes; and a thesaurus.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF SENSE OF HUMOR TO CREATIVITY AND INTELLIGENCE: A REVIEW

Although it is widely assumed that sense of humor is closely related to intelligence and creativity, the empirical studies of these relationships, which are reviewed in this article, have yielded conflicting findings. On the basis of the present review and a consideration of other relevant literature, it is suggested that the nature of such relationships might be affected by how the variables are operationalized, several characteristics of the experimental participants, as well as various aspects of the broader experimental context As the extant studies have investigated only a restricted number of the empirical issues to do with those characteristics, it is evident that a considerable amount of research remains to be conducted The more informative characterization provided by such research would clearly provide the basis for more accurate analyses of the nature of intelligence and creativity.     

Implementing impact evaluation in professional practice: A study of support needs within the museum, archive and library sector

This paper reports on research into the professional needs of those embarking on impact evaluation in the museum, archive and library sector. The research used a web portal providing impact evaluation research findings and examples of methods and toolkits as a means of facilitating response and discussion about practitioner attitude to, and resource needs for, impact evaluation in their own organisations. The various challenges associated with impact evaluation are briefly explored in relation to the conflicting interests of policy makers, managers and practitioners working in the frontline. Respondents’ reactions to issues associated with information accessibility are discussed and reflect the complexity of providing adequate support for a wide range of professionals with varying experience and potential or perceived needs. Although the study focused on one sector of practitioners, the findings are relevant to all professionals aiming to develop high quality information services and systems in relation to their end users.     

Individual Differences in Thinking: cognitive and neurophysiological perspectives

This paper explores the neglected area of categories of individual difference in human cerebral function. During thinking and decision making, it is hypothesised that different people process the same information in different ways, using different areas of the brain. Recent work suggests that individuals can be categorised into a small number of consistent groups of thinking, or cognitive, style. The different ways of processing reflect two basic dimensions of cognitive style. A simple computer‐presented method of determining cognitive style has been developed.

It is probable that these styles have an underlying cerebral basis. The styles are likely to be related to cerebral orientation. The specialisation of one cerebral hemisphere for verbal function and the other for visuo‐spatial has been long established. Hemispheric specialisation has been associated with the right hemisphere being the location of the visuo‐spatial and the left the verbal function, although evidence for this has been sometimes conflicting. This is not surprising when attention has not been paid to individual differences in cognitive style, as subjects of different styles will use different processes when doing the same cognitive task. Individual differences in orientation have not been clearly linked to differences in cognitive style.

It is proposed that studies could usefully explore the cerebral basis of individual differences in cognitive style, by measuring EEG asymmetries of individuals of specific cognitive styles, during the performance of a range of cognitive tasks. It is proposed that this would identify the location of certain brain functions associated with the different processing underlying the styles. A subsidiary intention is to assess the effectiveness of digital EEG monitoring as a research tool in this context.     

Signaling organization and stance: academic language use in middle grade persuasive writing

Effective academic writing is accessible to readers because writers follow shared conventions for organization and signal their stance on particular topics; however, few specifics are known about how middle graders might develop knowledge of and use these academic language forms and functions to signal their organization and stance in persuasive essays. This study examined how differences in organization and stance marker use was related to writing quality in 664 persuasive essays written by 176 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. Essays were collected in the context of a supplemental vocabulary program, transcribed and analyzed for length by researchers, scored for overall writing quality by a team of teachers, and then coded for markers of organization and stance by researchers. Multilevel modeling results reveal that two specific emergent organizational marker types (evidence markers and code glosses) have statistically significant negative relationships to quality, and the variety of stance markers used is a positive predictor of quality when an interaction with length is included in the model. Findings give insight into the ways students are using organization and stance markers and point toward these language forms and functions as potentially pedagogically-relevant and worth assessing.     

The 2022 SEND Green Paper and the SENCo: more evidence on demographics,qualifications and leadership status

The 2022 Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Review in England has proposed changes to the way in which SENCos are trained before working in English schools. Although the DfE collects data relating to the demographics of all teachers, the 2022 SEND Review Green Paper does not draw on this to support or inform the changes being proposed. A Freedom of Information request was made to the DfE, from which actual data could be acquired, with breakdowns by age, gender, qualifications and leadership status. The data describe a teacher who is still more likely to be female and approaching the middle of their career. Most SENCos are still on the class teacher pay scale rather than the leadership scale, with a minority holding a Master's-level qualification. The DfE does not have an accurate overview of how many teachers hold the current SENCo qualification. The article provides a number of recommendations to policymakers based on the data provided.