ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Disregard of Opportunity Gap Inequalities in Policy Debates over Mandatory English Education at Public Elementary Schools in Japan
Author: Matsuoka, Ryoji
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Private Schools,Elementary Schools,Second Languages,Student Diversity,Guidelines,Foreign Countries,Grade 6,Educational Policy,Public Schools,Grade 5,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Achievement Gap,Access to Education

On January 17, 2008, the Japanese Central Education Council submitted a newly revised set of official curriculum guidelines to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan. These guidelines for elementary schools will become effective in the 2011 academic year and include a controversial new policy: the introduction of mandatory &quot;foreign language activities&quot; at all public elementary schools. Japanese fifth and sixth graders will receive about one period (approximately forty-five minutes) per week of mandatory English education called &quot;foreign language activities.&quot; Prior to implementation, these guidelines were vigorously debated by supporters and opponents of the policy. However, they have now been made official and every public and private school in Japan is required to follow them. This article identifies supporters and opponents of the policy and summarizes their arguments in order to demonstrate that neither side has ever discussed the policy in terms of the opportunity gap that exists between different segments of the Japanese population. Considering that the existence of an opportunity gap is a major issue in educational policy debates in the United States, the author argues that a similar opportunity gap exists in Japan, but that it tends to be ignored in policy debates. Next, he shows that the gap is manifested in differential access among sectors of the population to shadow education and to private schools. Finally, he evaluates the new policy in terms of narrowing this opportunity gap between students with access to shadow education and private school lessons and those without them.
The English Program at Murasakino Senior High School
Author: Minagawa, Haruo
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,High Schools,Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Educational Innovation,Second Language Instruction,Advanced Courses,Computer Uses in Education,Internet,Educational Technology,Student Exchange Programs,Cultural Awareness,Blended Learning,Public Speaking

Murasakino High School is a municipal senior high school located in the northern part of Kyoto, an ancient capital city of Japan. With a little over one thousand students studying in three grades (from fifteen to eighteen years of age), Murasakino has a distinctive scholastic tradition that makes it different from other high schools in Kyoto. Over the fifty years of its existence, Murasakino has made a number of innovations that have entailed restructuring its curriculum. In 1993, Murasakino started a special English program called the advanced academic English Course in one of the nine classes it offers in each grade. The other eight classes remained unchanged, and the students continued with the regular academic coursework. Murasakino has provided the students in the special English course with a unique English education that combines computer and Internet-based programs with opportunities for international exchange. These programs have turned out to be very successful, and led to a three-year designation as a Super English Language High School (SELHi) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) from 2003 to 2005. In this article, the author outlines the main features of the approach to English education that Murasakino employs in its special English Course as these are quite distinct from the ways that English is normally taught in Japan.
Learning from Analysis of Japanese EFL Texts
Author: Weir, George R. S.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Textbooks,Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Textbook Evaluation,Textbook Research,Computational Linguistics

Japan has a long tradition of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). A common feature of EFL courses is reliance on specific textbooks as a basis for graded teaching, and periods in Japanese EFL history are marked by the introduction of different textbook series. These sets of textbooks share the common goal of taking students from beginners through to &quot;able&quot; English language users, so one would expect to find common characteristics across such series. As part of an on-going research programme in which Japanese EFL textbooks from different historical periods are compared and contrasted, the authors have recently focussed their efforts on using textual analysis tools to highlight distinctive characteristics of such textbooks. This article introduces one such analysis tool and describes some of the results from its application to three textbook series from distinct periods in Japanese EFL history. In so doing, the authors aim to encourage the use of textual analysis and seek to expose salient features of EFL texts that would likely remain hidden without such analytical techniques.(Contains 10 tables, 11 figures, and 3 endnotes.)
The Bukkyo University and University of Hawai'i College of Education Partnership
Author: McEwan, Hunter
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: International Educational Exchange,Cooperation,Foreign Countries,Partnerships in Education,Cooperative Programs,Higher Education

For the past ten years, the College of Education at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM-COE) and Bukkyo University in Kyoto, Japan have enjoyed a special relationship designed to promote cooperation and academic exchanges between the two institutions. The agreement of cooperation was signed on June 5, 2000 by President Shinko Nakai of Bukkyo and Dean Randy Hitz of the UHM-COE. The aim of this agreement was to promote student and faculty exchanges, conduct joint research and publications activities, encourage participation in seminars and academic meetings, facilitate the exchange of academic materials, and arrange special short-term academic programs including practical training and field work. In this article, the authors describe the Bukkyo University and UHM-COE partnership and the benefits of its academic exchanges. (Contains 1 endnote.)
Effective Practising: A Research Perspective
Author: Zhukov, Katie
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Motivation,Music Teachers,Teaching Methods,Music Education,Music Techniques,Drills (Practice),Musical Instruments,Expertise,Parent Influence,Performance Factors,Self Management,Best Practices,Literature Reviews,Foreign Countries

This paper reviews latest research findings on practising in an attempt to encourage studio music teachers to trial new approaches. Literature shows that expert performers begin learning an instrument at an early age, and sustain and increase their deliberate practice over at least 10 years. A certain amount of practice hours is needed to achieve professional level. Both formal and informal practice are important in the development of skills. Structured practice based on clear teacher instructions gives better results than unstructured practice. Technical work in practice should be directed to solving repertoire problems to initiate transfer of learning. Effective practising strategies include chunking, modelling, mental rehearsal, and hand reversal. Developing metacognitive skills in students will lead to greater self-regulation and effectiveness in practice. Selection of interesting repertoire is vital for maintaining students' motivation. Parental support plays an important role in the early stages of learning, while in the teen years participation in extra-curricular musical activities has significant educational and motivational value. Research findings reviewed in this paper have implications for the teaching profession and deserve consideration and trial.
Music Teacher Effectiveness: Selected Historical and Contemporary Research Approaches
Author: Brand, Manny
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Music,Research Methodology,Program Effectiveness,Music Teachers,Teaching Methods,Music Education,Literature Reviews,Bibliometrics,Teacher Characteristics,Individual Characteristics,Educational Research

This article reviews and analyzes selected past and current research approaches in the study of music teacher effectiveness. Early "teacher characteristic studies" are discussed along with the role of these first-generation studies in attempting to identify personal qualities and characteristics of apparently effective or ineffective teachers. These historical studies are contrasted with selected examples of contemporary research in music teacher effectiveness. Newer studies employ a broad range of methodologies and improved research techniques including the use of narrative descriptions of effective music teachers to account for and emphasize context and focus on the individual teacher and class as the unit of analysis. Two recent studies in music teacher effectiveness utilizing this narrative research approach are presented. Music teacher effectiveness research offers our profession a profile of the effective music teacher. Such a profile, of course, needs to be understood, interpreted, and applied so that our vision of the effective music teacher is based on our profession's best collective research and wisdom.
Parental Involvement in the Musical Education of Violin Students: Suzuki and "Traditional" Approaches Compared
Author: Bugeja, Clare
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Music Education,Parent Participation,Parent School Relationship,Teaching Methods,Learning Processes,Parent Role,Case Studies,Instructional Effectiveness,Conventional Instruction,Intermode Differences,Interviews,Comparative Analysis,Parent Attitudes,Measures (Individuals)

This article investigates parental involvement in the musical education of violin students and the changing role of the parents' across the learning process. Two contexts were compared, one emphasising the Suzuki methodology and the other a "traditional" approach. Students learning "traditionally" are typically taught note reading from the beginning of instruction, and sit independent music examinations. Two case studies were carried out involving a student and parent from each approach, with recollections spanning up to fifteen years. Despite parental involvement in "traditional" approaches not being defined, the parents interviewed undertook a very similar role regardless of approach. Results appear to indicate that across all approaches, students and their parents may benefit from proactive parental involvement in musical learning.
Establishing the Theoretical Construct of Pre-Service Teacher Self-Efficacy for Arts Education
Author: Garvis, Susanne
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teacher Education,Investigations,Self Efficacy,Cognitive Processes,Beginning Teachers,Intellectual Development,Art Education,Questionnaires,Student Teacher Attitudes,Social Development,Beliefs,Performance Factors,Teacher Motivation,Foreign Countries,Educational Theories

Significant research has been conducted into the positive effects of arts education on social and intellectual development of students across the ages of 10-15 years. Teacher competence for teaching the arts however does not appear to be as positive. A worldwide trend suggests pre-service teachers exhibit low confidence and content knowledge for the teaching of the arts (Hennessy, Rolfe &amp; Chedzoy, 2001; Russell Bowie, 2004). Teacher self-efficacy is still forming within the beginning years of teaching and once developed, is resistant to change (Bandura, 1997). During this beginning phase, teachers create their own self-knowledge through efficacy beliefs as they reflect on teaching. Subsequently, efficacy beliefs determine how environmental opportunities and impediments are perceived (Bandura, 2006). From this assumption, the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers are important for investigation for recognition of confirming and disconfirming experiences that shape this motivational construct. Research suggests that an understanding of teacher self-efficacy beliefs for arts education holds the key to improving the current problem of instigation (Oreck, 2004). This paper will provide an exploratory investigation of the theoretical construct of pre-service teacher self-efficacy. Fifteen pre-service teachers completed an adapted questionnaire based on teacher self-efficacy beliefs for the arts and personal experiences associated with the arts. These results form the basis of exploration regarding the variances created by demographic characteristics, educational contexts and personal experiences. The establishment and advancement of this theoretical understanding will provide guidance, planning and direction for beginning teacher support, teacher education and administration. It will provide greater understandings of how self-efficacy beliefs of teaching capabilities create powerful influences on the overall effectiveness of the teacher with students. Thus, it is possible to advance understandings of how pre-service teachers' regulate their own behaviour for teaching arts education through changes to their motivation, thought processes and actions. (Contains 1 table.)
The Quality and Accessibility of Primary School Music Education: Provision, Perceptions and Hopes in Six Non-Metropolitan Schools
Author: Hardcastle, Adam
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Music Education,Foreign Countries,Educational Quality,Access to Education,Elementary Education,Delivery Systems,Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators,Investigations,Interviews,Administrator Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Observation,Disadvantaged Schools,Educational Practices

The National Review of School Music Education has systematically documented the variations in quality and accessibility of school music education in Australia. Rural and remote schools were found to be particularly vulnerable to relatively poorer quality and accessibility. These findings were not new; they echoed similar observations made by official, academic and practitioner observers over many years. This article recounts an empirical study, replicating some of the National Review's investigatory techniques, that tests the applicability of its observations and findings to six primary schools located in a non-metropolitan cross-border region. It concludes that the quality of the music education indeed varies considerably but that the deficiencies are not principally due to insufficient awareness or enthusiasm at the local school level. Rather they arise from a high turnover of staff in short-term or fractional music teacher positions, from inadequate physical space arrangements within most (but not all) of these schools, and from other resourcing limitations.
What We Want: The Music Preferences of Upper Primary School Students and the Ways They Engage with Music
Author: De Vries, Peter
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Music Education,Music Activities,Focus Groups,Grade 6,Elementary School Students,Student Attitudes,Foreign Countries,Questionnaires,Observation,Student Participation,Popular Culture,Information Technology,Social Influences,Extracurricular Activities

This article examines the current music preferences of grade 6 children (12-13-year-olds) in an Australian primary school and the way these children engage with music. Data were collected in three phases, comprising a written questionnaire administered to all 86 students, focus group interviews with 12 of these children, and observation of students' engagement at school, both in class and out of class, over a five week period. This article focuses on the latter two phases. Results revealed students prefer contemporary popular music to other styles of music; new media technology such as digital music players play a significant role in their engagement with music; music plays multiple roles in the students' lives; they are aware of the diverse ways music is present in the world, both in and out of school; the students valued choice, particularly in terms of repertoire, in music activities at school; school can stifle potential engagement with music; and students involved in extracurricular music groups at school valued the experience.
Attributions for Success: Exploring the Potential Impact on Music Learning in High School
Author: Rosevear, Jennifer C.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Music Education,Music Activities,High School Students,Educational Practices,Attribution Theory,Locus of Control,Success,Beliefs,Student Attitudes,Self Concept,Student Experience,Self Efficacy,Student Surveys,Foreign Countries

Students' beliefs about why they may or may not be successful in various pursuits can influence the extent to which they are likely to invest effort in these pursuits and which in turn affects the level of achievement likely to be experienced. Attributional beliefs assign causes for success and failure to a range of factors, including ability, effort, task difficulty and luck (Weiner, 1986). This paper reports on high school students' beliefs about the reasons for their success or otherwise in school subjects and other activities, using data collected as part of a larger study using a researcher-designed &quot;Survey of Musical Experiences and Self-Concept&quot;. The participants (N=282) were a mixture of Year 9 and 10 students from three high schools in metropolitan Adelaide. The data collected reveals that the facet of &quot;enjoyment&quot; was perceived as being an important element among the reasons given for achieving success. There are implications for teaching in general, as well as specific applications to high school music education practices. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)
Shifting the Cantus Firmus: Australian Music Educators and the ERA
Author: Bennett, Dawn
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Music Education,Foreign Countries,Music Teachers,College Faculty,Teaching Methods,Alignment (Education),Theory Practice Relationship,Teacher Surveys,Questionnaires,Teacher Attitudes,Educational Policy,Politics of Education,Barriers,Change Strategies,Educational Change,Educational Research

Managing the teaching-research-creative practice nexus is a concern for everyone working in higher music education, particularly those involved with the supervision and mentorship of graduate students and early career academics. This paper takes as its subject the new Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), drawing examples from research frameworks elsewhere to identify some of the pertinent issues facing music educators and their students. The findings from a series of surveys and short interviews suggest that the formal recognition of artistic research remains largely dependent on the articulation of that research into traditional academic language. Furthermore, the increasing focus on research as a form of revenue generation highlights the separation of research and teaching and the lessening of academic autonomy. The paper argues that a balance can be achieved only with a fundamental, systemic shift that recognises the new knowledge and innovative methodological approaches within artistic research and, equally, within the scholarship of teaching. (Contains 1 table.)
Benefits of a Classroom Based Instrumental Music Program on Verbal Memory of Primary School Children: A Longitudinal Study
Author: Rickard, Nikki S.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Verbal Learning,Program Effectiveness,Memory,Memorization,Music Education,Teaching Methods,Musical Instruments,Elementary School Students,Foreign Countries,Longitudinal Studies,Visual Stimuli,Psychomotor Skills

Previous research has demonstrated a benefit of music training on a number of cognitive functions including verbal memory performance. The impact of school-based music programs on memory processes is however relatively unknown. The current study explored the effect of increasing frequency and intensity of classroom-based instrumental training program on verbal and visual memory across a two year period. Data from 142 participants were analysed: 82 (41 female (F), 41 male (M); mean age 8.62 years) allocated to the intensive strings music training program and 68 (37F, 31M; mean age 8.79 years) allocated to the control group (usual music classes). The Children's Memory Scale was used to test digit span, verbal learning and immediate and delayed verbal memory. Immediate visual recall was tested using the Benton Visual Designs test. Mixed model ANOVAs revealed that students receiving the intensive music training program exhibited significantly better learning and immediate recall for verbal information, after approximately one year, but not two years, after implementation of the program than did controls. No such benefit was observed following one year of a similarly novel juggling program in a sub-set of the sample. As anticipated, the intensive music training had no effect on visual memory, although an improvement in visual perceptual ability and digit span recall was observed in the first year also. The current findings have implications for educational programs (such as literacy training) which may benefit from transient improvements in verbal memory. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)
Intercultural Musicianship: A Collective and Participatory Form of Music Exchange across the Globe
Author: Klopper, Christopher
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Music,Foreign Countries,Internet,Technological Advancement,Video Technology,Computer Mediated Communication,Music Activities,Intercultural Programs,Music Education,Teaching Methods,Program Descriptions

Cultural boundaries are no longer geographically dictated. This intercultural music making initiative made provision for the social cohesion of the North-West University, South Africa Tswana students as they prepared musical artefacts for &quot;export&quot; that convey, confirm and explore their culture of birth. Advancement in emerging digital technologies assisted to facilitate the export through video, on-line chat room and web-cam communication. Such technology supports the conveyance of originality, authenticity and context. The exporters were not remotely detached from the musical artefact but were connected digitally. The &quot;importers&quot;, Charles Sturt University, Australia were able to access the musical artefacts through repeated, close and careful encounters. The students in Australia were then tasked with having to create a performance of the musical artefact using Orff melodic and non-melodic instruments. In so doing this intercultural music exchange results in a collective and participatory music-making initiative. (Contains 2 excerpts, 1 figure and 2 footnotes.)