Journal of Research in Music Education

Information from a statewide norming study of all teachers was used to compare the I performance of music teachers and other teachers on 10 competencies and a variety of classroom behaviors. Music teachers' competency scores were below the mean for all teachers on 7 of the 10 competencies; however, music teachers' scores on specific classroom behaviors showed virtually no difference from those of other teachers on 94 of the 117 behaviors included on the Classroom Observation Instrument (COR). Music teachers outperformed other teachers in using materials and eliciting student performance; however, they had lower frequencies in their use of various types of questions. On an opinion questionnaire, music teachers tended to support the evaluation program; however, a number expressed concerns about the validity of the competencies for music teachers and the evaluators' expertise.

Effective learning experiences are believed to involve the various functions of learning, teaching, and curriculum. Furthermore, the content or substance of what is taught has inherent characteristics that can affect both student and teacher. Success in learning would thus depend in part on an individual's ability to adapt to demands and constraints made by these curricular characteristics. The focus of this study was the relationship of music composition (as one aspect of a music curriculum) with specific learning styles. A major emphasis concerned the development of a research model in which music composition was viewed as involving intuitive and rational musical abilities. Learning style was interpreted as the collective constructs of mediation ability (concrete and abstract perception paired with sequential and random processing) and perceptual modality (visual, aural, and kinesthetic sensory modes). Sixty-four high school instrumental music students in grades 11 and 12 participated in this research by completing two learning-style inventories (the Gregorc Style Delineator and the Edmonds Learning Style Identification Exercise) and a researcher-designed test of musical composition ability (Ability to Compose Music Exercise). Statistical analysis of these tests indicated significant relationships between (a) intuitive musical ability and the abstract random learning style, (b) perceptual modality and intuitive musical ability, and (c) perceptual modality and rational musical ability.

In this study, the changes in musical attitudes, opinions, and knowledge of undergraduate students (N = 135) enrolled in a music appreciation course were investigated. At the beginning and end of the 10-week course, students' attitudes toward composers were assessed by a free-recall survey on which the students were asked to list and rank-order their 10 favorite composers and to give information about recording ownership. Students then completed a test composed of excerpts about which they were asked their opinion and questions about their knowledge of era, composer, and title. Students exhibited a significant gain in knowledge about the works on the test (p < .01); however, there was no significant difference in their opinions of these same works between the pretest and the I posttest (p > .10). Students listed significantly more composers of the formal tradition on the attitude survey following the course (p < .01). Moderate relationships were found between the gain in the number of formal composers listed on the attitude survey, recordings reportedly purchased (p < .01), and grades earned (p < .05).

The purpose of this study was to investigate aspects of instructional language from three historical perspectives in order to operationally define elements of teacher language behavior and to develop an instructional language assessment instrument that might be useful in evaluating the language behaviors of preservice elementary and music education majors. An investigation of the educational treatises of Quintilian, Erasmus, and Herbart revealed a number of views regarding teacher language behaviors. The Instructional Language Assessment instrument (ILA) and corresponding operational definitions for verbal interaction, subject-matter vocabulary, general vocabulary, speech speed, voice pitch, and articulation were developed from these historical instructional language views. The quality of the instructional language of 143 elementary and music education majors was evaluated using the ILA and video/audiotaped time-sampled music lessons. A descriptive analysis revealed that the elementary education majors received more percentage points for positive verbal interaction, accurate subject-matter vocabulary usage, variable voice pitch, and clear articulation; the music education majors received more percentage points for correct general vocabulary usage and steady speech speed.

A questionnaire was sent to 90 publishing researchers who were members of college music faculties in the fields of music theory, music history, music education, and music therapy asking them why they engaged in research activity and what specific rewards they believe they obtained because of their own research. Among the 55 respondents, intellectual curiosity, enjoyment, self-improvement, and perceived duty were the main reasons for conducting research. Intrinsic motivators linked to the nature of the research process were the most important reward for these people, while salary increase was considered the most important external reward.