Sociology and Music Education: a response to Swanwick

This paper is a response to Professor Swanwick's critique of our sociological perspective on music education. A detailed presentation of the sociology of music thesis demonstrates that accusations of ‘social determinism’ and ‘referentialism’ are both misconceived. Moreover, Swanwick's position leads to difficulties in his approach to music aesthetics, where at times he makes assumptions concerning the work of theorists such as Meyer and Keil which these authors have themselves explicitly repudiated. We then relate certain observations which Swanwick makes concerning the processes of schooling to wider sociological theories of schooling that help make sense of the kinds of constraints Swanwick correctly identifies. Finally, we accept Swanwick's challenge to be more explicit concerning both our response to his charge of relativism and our practical recommendations for the reform of music teaching.     

Letter names, letter sounds and phonological awareness: an examination of kindergarten children across letters and of letters across children

In this study 149 kindergarten children were assessed for knowledge of letter names and letter sounds, phonological awareness, and cognitive abilities. Through this it examined child and letter characteristics influencing the acquisition of alphabetic knowledge in a naturalistic context, the relationship between letter-sound knowledge and letter-name knowledge, and the prediction of Grade 1 phonological awareness and word identification from these variables. Knowledge of letter sounds was better for vowels and for letters with consonant–vowel names than for those with vowel–consonant names or names bearing little relationship to their sounds. However, there were anomalies within each category reflecting characteristics of the individual letters. Structural equation modelling showed that cognitive ability, comprising receptive vocabulary, non-verbal reasoning, rapid automatized naming of colours, and phonological memory significantly contributed to alphabetic knowledge and phonological awareness. In turn, letter-name knowledge but not phonological awareness predicted letter-sound knowledge and subsequent reading skill.This research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to the first author. Thank you is extended to the participating schools and children and to Ian Newby-Clark for his orientation to AMOS. Michelle Bell, Shelly Moretti and Jodi Page have since graduated from the University of Guelph     

The Accomplishment of Divergence

The situated development of South Asian communities in the UK has led to the growth of a number of schools in which ‘ethnic minority’ pupils form a majority. Such a situation throws into higher relief issues and concerns surrounding cultural transmission and encounter, and communicative competence.

This paper recounts some of the principal findings of research in which the teaching staff of a large 9‐13 middle school were interviewed individually regarding their perceptions of their South Asian pupils. The school has an almost wholly South Asian intake and is situated near the centre of a large northern city.

The teachers’ markedly deficit view of their charges is detailed and this is followed by an explanation of their constructions in microsociological terms. A model is presented which clarifies the processes by which close intercultural interaction seem to accomplish worlds as divergent.

The author teaches children with special educational needs at the school in which the study was undertaken.     

The Effect of Collaborative Concept Mapping on Elementary Preservice Teachers' Anxiety,Efficacy, and Achievement in Physical Science

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Whose memories, whose archives? Independent community archives, autonomy and the mainstream

Over the last three or four decades in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, an enormous variety of grassroots projects and initiatives have sprung up dedicated to recording and preserving the memories and histories of different communities, often under-voiced and under-represented within the mainstream heritage. The impetus for such projects arose from a range of motivations but in general all were responding to the desire to document, record and preserve the identity and history of their own locality and community. Some custodians and creators of these collections remain suspicious of the mainstream archival profession and are determined to preserve their independence and autonomous voice by retaining direct ownership and physical custodianship of their collections, at least for the foreseeable future. In this context, seeking to ensure that these valuable materials are preserved and possibly made accessible presents a number of challenges and opportunities, including an encouragement to re-examine some aspects of traditional professional practice. By examining independent community archive activity in the UK, and in particular in London, and its implications for community interaction and identity within the multicultural context of contemporary British culture and society, this article seeks to contribute a different but relevant perspective to international debates about contemporary professional archival theory and practice.     

The categorisation of swimming start performance with reference to force generation on the main block and footrest components of the Omega OSB11 start blocks

Abstract

Work presented in this paper provides a methodology for categorising swimming start performance based on peak force production on the main block and footrest components of the Omega OSB11 starting block. A total of 46 elite British swimmers were tested, producing over 1000 start trials. Overwater cameras were synchronised to a specifically designed start block that allowed the measurement of force production via two sets of four, tri-axis, force transducers; one set in the main block and one in the footrest. Data were then analysed, segregating trials for gender. Each start was categorised, with respect to the peak force production in horizontal and vertical components, into one of nine categories. Three performance indicators, i.e. block time, take-off velocity and distance of entry, were used to assess whether differences in performance could be correlated with these categories. Results from these data suggest that swimmers generating higher than average peak forces were more likely to produce a better overall start performance than those who produced forces lower than the average, for this population of athletes.     

The Supervisory Relationship: A Conceptual and Psychometric Review of Measures

To date, a comprehensive review of supervisory relationship measures has yet to be published. In this article, the authors explore conceptualizations of the supervisory relationship, describe and critique 11 measures, provide recommendations for researchers and practitioners when selecting measures, and offer suggestions regarding future measure development.     

Accounting for Rater Effects With the Hierarchical Rater Model Framework When Scoring Simple Structured Constructed Response Tests

Many large‐scale assessments are designed to yield two or more scores for an individual by administering multiple sections measuring different but related skills. Multidimensional tests, or more specifically, simple structured tests, such as these rely on multiple multiple‐choice and/or constructed responses sections of items to generate multiple scores. In the current article, we propose an extension of the hierarchical rater model (HRM) to be applied with simple structured tests with constructed response items. In addition to modeling the appropriate trait structure, the multidimensional HRM (M‐HRM) presented here also accounts for rater severity bias and rater variability or inconsistency. We introduce the model formulation, test parameter recovery with a focus on latent traits, and compare the M‐HRM to other scoring approaches (unidimensional HRMs and a traditional multidimensional item response theory model) using simulated and empirical data. Results show more precise scores under the M‐HRM, with a major improvement in scores when incorporating rater effects versus ignoring them in the traditional multidimensional item response theory model.     

Stress,Interviewer Support,and Children's Eyewitness Identification Accuracy

Few studies have investigated how stress affects eyewitness identification capabilities across development, and no studies have investigated whether retrieval context in conjunction with stress affects accuracy. In this study, one hundred fifty‐nine 7‐ to 8‐ and 12‐ to 14‐year‐olds completed a high‐ or low‐stress laboratory protocol during which they interacted with a confederate. Two weeks later, they attempted to identify the confederate in a photographic lineup. The lineup administrator behaved in either a supportive or a nonsupportive manner. Participants who experienced the high‐stress event and were questioned by a supportive interviewer were most accurate in rejecting target‐absent lineups. Results have implications for debates about effects of stress on eyewitness recall, how best to elicit accurate identifications in children, and developmental changes in episodic mnemonic processes.