Biology, axioms, teleology and knowledge c/o Cox & Forshaw (2012)

'Teleological ideas generally have a rather bad reputation in science, and it's easy to see why. In biology, a teleological explanation for the emergence of complex creatures would be tantamount to an argument for the existence of a designer, whereas Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection provides a simpler explanation that fits the available data beautifully. There is no teleological component to Darwin's theory - random mutations produce variations in organisms, and external pressures from the environment and other living thing determine which of these variations are passed on to the next generation. This process alone can account for the complexity we see in life on Earth today. In other words, there is no need for a grand plan and no gradual ascent of life towards some sort of perfection. Instead, the evolution of life is a random walk, generated by the imperfect copying of genes in a constantly shifting external environment. The Nobel-Prize-winning French biologist Jacques Monod went so far as to define a cornerstone of modern biology as "the systematic or axiomatic denial that scientific knowledge can be obtained on the basis of theories that involve, explicitly or not, a teleological principle".

As far as physics is concerned, there is no debate as to whether or not the least action principle actually works, for it allows calculations to be performed that correctly describe Nature and it is a cornerstone of physics. It can be argued that the least action principle is not teleological at all, but the debate is in any case neutralized once we have a grasp of Feynman's approach to quantum mechanics. The ball flying through the air 'knows' which path to choose because it actually, secretly, explores every possible path.' pp.52-53.

Cox, Brian, and Jeff Forshaw. (2012) Quantum Universe, the: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

See also: 

Jacques Monod - https://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/scientists/monod/

Harrison, Peter. 2022. 'The History of Science and Theology', St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. Edited by Brendan N. Wolfe et al. https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/TheHistoryofScienceandTheology

Greslehner GP. "Molecular Biology"- Pleonasm or Denotation for a Discipline of Its Own? Reflections on the Origins of Molecular Biology and Its Situation Today. Biomolecules. 2023 Oct 12;13(10):1511. doi: 10.3390/biom13101511. PMID: 37892193; PMCID: PMC10605324.

Previously: 'axiom' : 'biology' : 'corner'

Conquering Today's Health Paradox with the Power of HEAL – An Expert Consensus Report plus Research Priorities and Policymaker Roadmap

A further post will follow with full PR, but the paper is now published:

Article type: Policy Brief
Journal: Frontiers in Public Health - Public Health Education and Promotion
Manuscript ID: 1695757
Received on date: 30 Aug 2025

Abstract

Background. Despite growing scientific evidence and health guidelines, the global health paradox persists, with rising lifestyle-related diseases and escalating healthcare costs exposing the inadequacy of current efforts.

Objective. 3 multidisciplinary congresses were held to generate evidence-based conclusions to tackle the global health paradox.

Methods. 58 experts from 62 entities participated in the international research and knowledge exchange panels. Experts reviewed the latest findings to develop practical strategies, key research and policy priorities, focusing on the “Healthy Eating & Active Living” (HEAL) approach.

Results, Conclusions, and Relevance. The expert consortium endorsed a 33 evidence-based consensual-statement policy roadmap for addressing global health challenges, emphasizing the HEAL approach can significantly contribute to the “Prevention First” appeal and broad ethical, social, ecological, and economic advantages, and eventually policy change.

Wirnitzer KC, Motevalli M, Tanous DR, Drenowatz C, Moser M, Cramer H, Rosemann T, Wagner K-H, Michalsen A, Knechtle B, Fras Z, Ritskes-Hoitinga M, Marques A, Mis NF, Stanford FC, Schubert C, Goswami N, Leitzmann C, Fredriksen PM, Ruedl G, Wilflingseder D, Lima RA, Kessler C, Jeitler M, Khan NA, Joulaei H, Fatemi M, Knight A, Kratky KW, Palmer KK, Haditsch B, Jakse B, Kofler W, Pfeiffer T, Cordova-Pozo K, Tortella P, Straub S, Lynch H, Schätzer M, Krishnan A, Fathima A. S, Gatterer L, Kriwan F, Abhishek M, Nandgaonkar H, Nandgaonkar S, Adedara AO, Haro JM, Gericke C, Neumann G, Akhtar A, Rashidlamir A, Thangavelu M, Ngoumou GB, Perpék É, Klaper M, Bhattacharya B, Kirschner W, Bessems KMHH, Jones P, Peoples G, Bescos R, Duftner C, Seifert G (2025). Toward a roadmap for addressing today’s health dilemma–The 101-statement consensus report. Frontiers in Nutrition, Volume 12:1676080. doi:10.3389/fnut.2025.1676080.

 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1676080

28th Annual International Hybrid Nursing Philosophy Conference, July 22-24, 2026

Join the UC Irvine Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing Center for Nursing Philosophy in association with the International Philosophy of Nursing Society (IPONS) for the 28th International Nursing Philosophy Conference.

The HYBRID conference will take place physically at the University of California, Irvine in sunny, coastal Southern California, USA, as well as virtually via Zoom.

This hybrid, multidisciplinary conference aims to generate conversations between philosophy and nursing through a series of invited panel conversations and events. Cutting-edge peer-reviewed abstract panels on current scholarship and ideas in nursing philosophy will also be featured.

Contacts and site ...

IP? No! Not 'intellectual property' the other one . . .

'Interested Persons'

- also vested in data, information, knowledge, 

who knew how, what, why, when, where ...

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

identity - witness - involvement recall - memory Knowledge - Answers	The (sudden) power of situation, circumstances,  time and place. Events
Society Team - Teamwork Social Justice	Interested Persons Coroner's Court

My source:

Marriage, M. In Search Of Lost Time, FT Magazine. FT Weekend, 22 February 2025, pp.21-27.

https://www.ft.com/content/f94a71ee-0c42-4839-9521-e7866975fa72

"No argument, we should teach critical thinking" by Julian Richer

Spring and summer reading includes Our Housing Disaster. Julian Richer's weekly column in the Sunday Times is very interesting; business yes, but socially oriented and positive in the values conveyed.

I'm 100 pages into The Systems View of Life, posts to follow, but before getting to OHD, I noticed another of Richer's columns:

#36 "No argument, we should teach critical thinking"

Sunday 14th July 2024

"... all the successful bosses I’ve ever worked with encourage an open flow of communications in all directions (internally — up, down, across — and with the outside world, too) with no taboos. They try to surround themselves with good people who can see the world independently, draw their own conclusions and have the confidence to express their ideas."

"It’s very difficult to craft a culture of critical thinking and open debate in a business unless it’s been taught at school, as our parents tend to be more stuck in their ways. Unfortunately, schools spend so much time on teaching and testing reading, and particularly writing, that they don’t have enough time to teach thinking and speaking. These require practice, too. And they are also very important life and business skills."

 

The discussion on Parallel Histories reminds me of philosophical talk, virtue-seeking is not enough. It needs to applied practically, if it is to make a difference.

 

"An added benefit is that kids who have learnt calm and reasoned debate will use this knowledge to help them in their adult life. Certainly, those going on to join the business world will be very pleased to have received these negotiating and people skills, both essential."

Hodges' model provides a structure for reflection, reflective practice, and critical thinking and inevitably light-weight can be carried as lifelong learning resource and tool.

Raymond Williams Foundation - TARGETED GRANTS OFFER

 Dear Friends of RWF,

Can I remind you of our targeted grant scheme. Perhaps you could help us by sharing this with your network.

 

Best wishes 

Bob Foster

 

Applications are now open for five targeted grants of up to £1000 to support self-organised adult learning activities or events. Proposals should aim to enable the development and running of self-organised adult learning events or activities which have a progressive, social justice, environmental, or cultural purpose. Priority will be given to applicants on low incomes/universal credit, younger people (under 25's) and black and brown people.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Midnight 1 October 2023

Go to https://www.raymondwilliamsfoundation.org.uk/grants for application form

Bob Foster
RWF Treasurer

My source: PIPs

23rd UKSS International Conference: Systems: Transition to a Sustainable World

23rd UKSS International Conference

Systems: Transition to a Sustainable World

15th of September 2023 in the Richmond Building, University of Portsmouth

The Conference programme for the 15th of September is as follows: UKSS 2023 Conference programme Friday the 15th of September Time Activity 10.00 – 10.30 a.m. Arrival and registration, Reception, The Richmond Building 10.30 – 10.45 a.m. Welcome by the UKSS President, Professor Stowell, Room 201 10.45 – 11.45 p.m. Keynote presentation, Ray Ison, Read More …

I thought I had posted this news, but it seems not. I'm pleased to do so now and have only recently  booked. As above, the conference is for one day and costs £25.00 while free for UKSS members, which will make you a UKSS member if not already. You can attend in-person or virtually.

As per 2018 when I presented Hodges' model in Portsmouth, I plan to attend physically, visiting Oxford on the way down.

BBC Reith Lectures 2022 - The Four Freedoms

 

 INDIVIDUAL
|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

FEAR	WANT
WORSHIP	SPEECH

Are fear and worship interchangeable? 

Can I follow my faith / beliefs?

Many communities and groups live in fear.

Do the freedoms begin (and end!) with speech?

The ability to meet basic needs 'wants' - relies upon socioeconomic means; but basic needs are material in the first instance, through shelter, water, and food. All these depend upon security (locally, nationally, globally) as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

BBC Radio 4 The Reith Lectures

See also:
Jones P, Wirnitzer K. Hodges’ model: the Sustainable Development Goals and public health – universal health coverage demands a universal framework. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health 2022;0:e000254. doi:10.1136/bmjnph-2021-000254

Adapting Gärdenfors' - 'event boards' figure

Further to the post:

c/o Gärdenfors: "Events and Causal Mappings Modeled in Conceptual Spaces" 

[ re. Gärdenfors (2020) ]

A related work (Gärdenfors et al., 2019) includes 'figure 1' copied here:

 

Fig. 1. The components of the holistic AI architecture
Gärdenfors et al., 2019

 

I've never been diagnosed with ADHD, but am left to wonder. I say this in all seriousness, having come across individuals who need formal assessment (autism too) and hence referral. Listening to others, it seems many people have 'unfinished' writing projects. One here (>40k words) still proves helpful, with notes on Gärdenfors' work and trying to relate this to the Health Career Model.

With some notes, I have copied the tables below from Gärdenfors (2000) and you can see the development in figure 1 above.

Cognitive Science
Goals	explanation and construction
constraint	problem of representation
Solution	SYMBOLIC	ASSOCIATIVISM	CONCEPTUAL

Table 6 Cognitive Science as explanation and construction 

These solutions to the problem of representation have been applied and their respective strengths identified in the construction of ANNs as per table 4.

	Levels of Representation p.253
SYMBOLIC:	Searching, matching and rule following
CONCEPTUAL:	Vector calculations, coordinate transformations and other geometrical operations
SUBCONCEPTUAL:	Pattern recognition, pattern transformation and dynamic adaptation of values

Table 7 Levels of Representation

When presented with evidence in support of my project, I must utilise it. So, quoting Gärdenfors again:

"In this way, simulations can provide the robotic system the power
to imagine events that is needed to understand the physical, social
and, eventually, the emotional world we live in." Gärdenfors (2020)

Here, Gärdenfors' reference to: physical, social, and emotional I read as:

physical - SCIENCES domain

social - SOCIOLOGY domain

emotional - INTRA- INTERPERSONAL domain

Of course, Gärdenfors defines domain* and other terms (quality dimensions), and domain differs within Hodges' Health Career Model.

Students and artificial intelligence [AI] have something in common in that we want to enroll student nurses who have an aptitude and attitude that equips them with basic nursing skills and knowledge. This knowledge is nuanced, and would draw upon the plethora of proposed literacies, emotional, social and spiritual in this instance. Even before lectures begin, and the curriculum begins its march, the point is the need for common sense, general intelligence and ability to problem solve and reason.

Englemore, Robert; Morgan, Tony (1988).
Blackboard Systems. Addison-Wesley.
ISBN 978-0-201-17431-1.

 

In Englemore and Morgan's Blackboard Systems, Chapter 12, AGE: (Attempt to GEneralize) A Knowledge-Based Program for Building Knowledge-Based Programs (Nii and Aiello), there are two levels of irony.

H2cm is a long-term project and the journey here covers aspects of knowledge engineering, information processing to arrive at a care architecture and care assurance.

Below I've re-created figure 1, retaining 'symbolic' and 'conceptual' capabilities. The conceptual capability extends beyond conceptual spaces, to include threshold concepts, a concept-based curricula, semantic networks and more. The 'symbolic capability' is retained as I still maintain that h2cm can be represented within a computer program. The 'sub-conceptual level' has in a way been reversed - 'exploded' to take-in the primary focus and purposes for h2cm: the student, the patient, the public. 

 

H2CM: The components of a holistic care architecture -
See also: Gärdenfors et al., 2019

Our 'event board' is Nursing, Health and Social care situated using h2cm. Simulation is retained, its central location does not imply importance - quite the contrary. Theory combines lectures, research, the evidence-base, self-study, models and theories of nursing. Placements brings in clinical encounters with patients, carers and the public; plus mentors and the scope of learning opportunities. I have kept peers separate with the process of professional socialisation - which (should) span all.

*I will revisit this and my notes (definitions) at some point.

Gärdenfors P (2020) Events and Causal Mappings Modeled in Conceptual Spaces. Front. Psychol. 11:630. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00630

Gärdenfors, P., Williams, M.-A., Johnston, B., Billingsley, R., Vitale, J., Peppas, P., et al. (2019). “Event boards as tools for holistic AI,” in Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Cognition, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 2418, eds A. Chella, I. Infantino, and A. Lieto (Palermo: University of Technology Sydney), 1–10.

Gärdenfors, P. (2000). Conceptual Spaces, MIT Press, Cambridge.

THE REASONER 15(3)

THE  REASONER 15(3)

_____________________________

       

Volume 15, Number 3, May-June  2021

ISSN 1757-05 22

The latest issue of The Reasoner is now freely available for download in pdf format at: [http://www.thereasoner.org/]

 

 

Via mail list.

On the Border - In the Border

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

... It is not about the people of Chad and what's good for them.'" p.8.

"A French diplomat who knew Déby expressed a romantic view of the late president common in Paris, calling him a "warrior" who 'wanted to die in battle rather than in a hospital bed'. Ayisha Osori of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa said the Parisian view betrayed a casual indifference to the fate of ordinary Chadians. "It just seems fundamentally unfair that the whole world's view of Déby  is 'Oh, we've lost the great soldier'," she said. 'And now we have to do everything to make sure Chad is secure. But we don't really mean Chad, we just mean the borders around Chad. ...

My source:

Munshi, N., Pilling, D. Death of Chad leader spells uncertainty for Sahel, FTWeekend, 24-25 April, 2021, p.8.

Graphic: https://vemaps.com/chad/td-01

National Day of Arts in Care Homes

 

 

Not long to go now until the second National Day of Arts in Care Homes, which takes place on Thursday 24 September.

During lockdown, we have seen a wealth of amazing activities and projects take place in care homes across the UK, including corridor choirs, garden concerts, socially distanced art sessions, online ceramics tutorials, live streamed concerts and dance, pen pal projects and postal art initiatives. Care settings have used the arts to raise morale, keep residents and staff stimulated, keep in touch with friends and loved ones, express worries and fears and also to celebrate birthdays and other occasions. 

Please show your support for the provision of arts activities in care homes on 24 September by organising an event, sharing stories and spreading the word.

 

Continued...

a Book by two Fathers on "Grief, Guilt and Hope"

Il Nous Reste Les Mots (We Still Have Words) 

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

My source:
BBC Radio 4, PM, 13 January 2020.

Special Issue: Critical Realism and ICT4D

The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC)

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

Philosophy Subjectivity	Planning #ICT4D research or writing it up: then check the recent open-access special issue on #CriticalRealism and ICT4D Research in EJISDC. Analysis, reflections and case study applications of critical realism in ICT4D https://t.co/TiG4ju4dlC pic.twitter.com/AEitFggA8d — Richard Heeks (@CDIManchester) February 22, 2019
SOCIO - technical?

My source: https://twitter.com/CDIManchester/status/1098962321471348736

Social prescribing: c/o @TheKingsFund - Three questions

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

Does it work?	What is it?
What is #socialprescribing? Does it work, and how does it fit in with wider health and care policy? A quick refresher ahead of our event tomorrow… https://t.co/46cJqjBKeR — The King's Fund (@TheKingsFund) November 5, 2018	And how does it fit in  with wider health and care policy?

Social prescribing is not a quick fix, a social distraction from a clinical problem. How this is approached - negotiated - will be a clear factor in the shared success of social prescribing as an effective, intervention for the person concerned, the NHS AND society.

Wellcome Collection: Handle with Care

Health care is complex
because
care delivery
involves the
handling
of a variety of forms of
knowledge, information and data. 

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ---------------- ...WHAT IT MEANS ... ------------------ mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

to be cared for	to be caring
to care	to be a carer

The handling becomes specialised 

because of those

be's

the 'patient', the 'nurse', the 'carer'...

identities

loved, lost, earned and learned ...

The integration of all this 

can be summarised as so many forms of 'why'

often described as the spiritual -

Let us handle the Planet With Care.

Forensic Architecture (Care Forensics?)

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

	forensic adjective: forensic relating to or denoting the application of scientific methods and techniques to the investigation of crime. "forensic evidence" relating to courts of law. noun plural noun: forensics; noun: forensic 1. scientific tests or techniques used in connection with the detection of crime.

See also:
ICA London, 7 March - 6 May, Counter Investigations: Forensic Architecture.

My source:
Rowan Moore, Forensic Architecture: detail behind the devilry. The Observer Sun 25 Feb 2018

Gagné nine events in E-learning

In checking through more books, I revisited Khan and Ally's International Handbook of E-Learning. Chapter 10 by Florence Martin includes several models for instructional design. My in-situ pencil notes from 2015 reminded me of Figure 10.1 "Adaptation of Gagné's nine events" (Gagné and Driscoll, 1988).

I found a version on Pinterest:

Gagné's nine events

Martin and others refer to "Present Stimulus" as "Present the Content" and this is what stands out. If Hodges' model was realised within an online reflective workbench then the student would be engaged in creating the content. The student becomes the stimulus, generating the content.

Pinterest provides another version which sums up quite nicely the potential of Hodges' model. It was brainstorming and developments in mind-mapping that prompted my interest. Structure can gain attention. Structure might also invite interaction. Hodges' model presents a space in which the contents might be manipulated? The initial blank space might also indicate an objective. A series of care or knowledge domains may also invite reflection on a practical experience, a patient or carer encounter.

Gagné's nine events

What follows from Present the content in Gagné's nine events remains a challenge, but if you understand what Hodges' model is and its application then you may also see its potential.


Martin, F. (2015) E-learning Design-From Instructional Events to Elements, Chapter 10. In Badrul H. Khan, & Mohamed Ally (Eds) International Handbook of E-Learning. Volume 1, Oxford: Routledge. pp. 153-170.

With regards to putting a pile of books together for a trip to Hay-on-Wye these handbooks Vols 1 & 2 are keepers.

Event: 'Critical Thinking and Health in Music Education' mapped to Hodges' model

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

psycho-physical
health promotion
qualitative : quantitative
subjective : objective

psychology reflection - CRITICAL THINKING (training) psychological demands of training health and well-being impacts - stress, anxiety, depression... pressure on individual to change lifestyle neuromyths - beliefs individual attitude, health literacy through related knowledge and skills Socratic method individual courage assertiveness	music education literature evidence - research musical instruments physical human - player instrumental demands practice, environment health and well-being impacts - musculoskeletal, neurological, audiological... rigour in empirical investigations question formulation
culture - tradition (norms and myths) expectations of peers and seniors group discussion socialisation conservative - conformity history, social change 'cohort courage'	high standards professional attitudes empowerment, self-advocacy citizens - world view policy and management practices

socio-political

Please see the original post for the - context and event details 14 Nov 2017

The context of music education and specifically what sounds like the socio-politics of education reminds of the healthcare. That is the socialisation of healthcare professionals. I can see this as a former student nurse and today with student nurses and many workplace conversations with doctors. The experiences and attitudes towards junior doctors and the hours they work stand out. Not all of course, but many juniors found the most vociferous defenders of the status quo were the Senior Consultants. This could be summed up as: "It was good enough for us....!"

I picked up a euphonium at school. Yes, her name was Denise and she was in the school brass band. I quickly put the instrument down, preferring the fields and woods after school. The heart strings still resonate though a great many decades later. Discovering the guitar since and Raluca Matei and her colleagues planned event I can appreciate the word 'interface' in a new way. This is learning not just the music, but that special interface between the musical instrumental and the would-be player.

There is also a sense that Hodges' model is an instrument and interface ...?

'Critical Thinking and Health in Music Education' 14 Nov 2017 Manchester

Raluca Matei posted this item to the Mental Health in Higher Education hub. The resonances with the purposes of Hodges' model are clear to me. With Raluca's permission I will map the themes of this event to Hodges' model in a further post. There is no primary link for the event itself, please see the contact details below:

Dear All,

My name is Raluca and I am an AHRC-funded PhD student in psychology and health promotion among musicians, at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), in Manchester. Together with Keith Phillips, a fellow PhD student in music psychology, we are organising ‘Critical thinking and health and music education’, a one-day event to be held at RNCM, on 14 November 2017, with funding from the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP).

OK…but why do that at all? 

• The physical and psychological demands of the training and practice that musicians must achieve to perform to a high standard on their instruments can produce deleterious effects on health and wellbeing, arising mostly from musculoskeletal, neurological and audiological causes. 
• Although there is a need for more rigour in the empirical investigation of potential interventions to address musicians’ health and wellbeing, British conservatoires remain guided more by tradition than the available evidence. Their websites still endorse practices that are either not supported by research (despite their popularity among musicians) or are so poorly defined that they can hardly be researched and investigated. This retrograde outlook encourages a rather conservative and conformist attitude that is prevalent among musicians. 
• An unfair emphasis on individuals to enact changes in lifestyle is continuously being pushed, while the larger cultural, social and environmental factors remain vastly unaltered and particularly resistant to change. 
• We argue that the above are at least partially due to the lack of critical thinking training and health education among music students and their teachers. Introducing such training might not only increase their health literacy (i.e. the achievement of health-related knowledge and relevant set of skills), but also empower them individually and as a group to question the status quo and assertively demand for changes to be made accordingly, to their own benefit, rather than submissively adapt to cultural norms informed by the mere passage of time and the burden of tradition. 
• Although such changes require considerable resources and never happen immediately, we argue that we need to start by asking questions. The literature suggests that critical thinking needs specific training and doesn’t necessarily happen by itself, especially given that one would need exceptional courage and to assume some risk to go against ingrained cultural norms. 
• Given that the role of higher education is not solely to prepare students for existing jobs but also to turn them into informed citizens, critical thinking can help them to shape the world and to embody the change they want to see. In addition, efforts focused on changing policy and management practices might be more effective, realistic and beneficial for a larger number of people than solely attempting to change individuals. 

And what are you aiming for? 

• To raise awareness of and debunk various myths that are being circulated in music education in relation to psychology and health
• To discuss about the importance of critical thinking in education and what the available literature tells us about effective interventions aimed at training it
• To discuss how we can, as researchers, bridge the gap between the evidence and the practical real world, as well as educational policies
• To discuss the findings of the first paper on neuromyths among music teachers and how these might inform future practice 
• To discuss potential ways in which the specific training of critical thinking could be incorporated into the pedagogical training of musicians
• To address the link between critical thinking and health promotion in music education 
• To discuss how the Socratic method might be used in training critical thinking 
• To brainstorm ideas on how critical thinking and psychology might be incorporated as part of musicians’ formal training – examples will be provided from the latest research in the field 

How would I benefit from this?

• Free access to an interdisciplinary, ground-breaking event on critical thinking in higher education

• The chance to be innovative within your own field and even initiate new professional pathways

• The opportunity to meet students, researchers and practitioners from your field of interest, as well as from related fields

• The opportunity to have your ideas discussed within an exploratory round table discussion, given that we will allow plenty of room for this!

Our speakers include:

• Prof. Reinhard Kopiez, Professor of Music Psychology, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media
• Prof. Jane Ogden, Professor of Health Psychology, University of Surrey

The event will incorporate a considerable amount of group discussion, in an attempt to dive into a rather innovative field and hopefully reach some meaningful conclusions and suggest a few solutions. 

Our event is highly interdisciplinary, and it is open to postgraduate students, researchers and specialists in:

• Music (Performance and Education)
• Psychology
• Philosophy
• Education sciences and policy
• Medicine (with a focus on health education, health promotion and prevention, as well as public health)
• Science journalism/Science communication 

Although attendance is free, places are limited and registration will be based on a brief expression of interest. We ask potential participants to explain the nature of their research, interests and/or background, and detail why this event is relevant to them in writing to us by Sunday, 15 October 2017. 

Finally, we will keep the format and content flexible and depending on the background and interests of attendees, the conversations we will be having can follow various pathways. 

Raluca Matei – ... 

Keith Phillips – ... 

Please do email one of us for further details. Additionally, If you could please forward this to any relevant postgraduate students, researchers and/or specialists, I would be immensely grateful! 

With many thanks and kind wishes,

Raluca

Raluca Matei MSc, BMus, MBPsS

AHRC-funded PhD student in psychology and health promotion 

Royal Northern College of Music, 

Manchester

...

I am looking f/w to attending. PJ