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LIBRARY
Michigan State
University

This is to certify that the

dissertation entitled

IMPROVING MUSIC METHODS INSTRUCTION FOR
PRESERVICE ELEMENTARY EDUCATORS: AN
INVESTIGATION OF SELECTED FACTORS

presented by

Suzanne L. Burton

‘ has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph. D. degreein Mu81c Educatlon

 

 

Date iLij LUZ,

MS U i: an Afﬁrmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0-12771

PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record.
TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due.
MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested.

 

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5108 K.lProj/Acc&Pres/CIRC/DateDue Indd

 

 

NPR(
iiUEMiZNT.a

IMPROVING MUSIC METHODS INSTRUCTION FOR PRESERVICE
ELEMENTARY EDUCATORS: AN INVESTIGATION OF SELECTED FACTORS

By

Suzanne L. Burton

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

School of Music

2002

NPR
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ABSTRACT

IMPROVING MUSIC METHODS INSTRUCTION FOR PRESERVICE
ELEMENTARY EDUCATORS: AN INVESTIGATION OF SELECTED FACTORS

By

Suzanne L. Burton

The purpose of this study was to improve music methods instruction for
preservice elementary educators by exploring their responses to instructional strategies
and assignments of a music methods course, and if course curriculum design and
implementation had an impact on their attitudes and comfort levels for music and
teaching music. Also investigated was whether students’ attitudes and comfort levels for
music and teaching music changed over the course of a semester. Music aptitude, self-
rating of music ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course,
past music experience in an ensemble, or past formal instruction were examined as
potential predictors of preservice elementary educators’ attitudes and comfort levels.

The study involved the teacher-researcher and 15 college-aged students enrolled
in a required music methods course for preservice elementary educators. The length of
the study was 15 weeks. Data were collected from the students’ and teacher-researcher’s
weekly journal entries, and course documents. Content analysis was used to determine
whether course design impacted attitude or level of comfort for music and music
teaching and/or students’ responses to instructional strategies and assignments of the
music methods course. Students completed pretest and posttest music teaching attitude
and level of comfort questionnaires. All/0W1 was used to measure stabilized music

aptitude. Paired comparison t-tests were performed on pretest and posttest questionnaire

{131310 determ-
teaching Mult
formal instruC‘
ability. and se'
pretest and p0-
talidity of the

\l'heth
ensemble sell
peers function
comfort quest

At the
of music in th
the musical d:
and that they r
musicianship
listening and 1
comert level:
Creating Ida.»
teacher Obsen
modeling and
Provided stud

result in POSit

data to determine whether change in attitude or level of comfort occurred for music
teaching. Multiple regression analyses were performed to detemtine whether years of past
formal instruction, years of past participation in an ensemble, self-rating of musical
ability, and self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers ﬁmction as predictors of
pretest and posttest questionnaire items. Methods and data were triangulated to strengthen
validity of the ﬁndings.

Whether AMMA, years of past formal instruction, years of past participation in an
ensemble, self-rating of musical ability, or self-rating of musical ability as compared to
peers function as predictors of pretest or gains scores of the attitude and level of
comfort questionnaire items was found to be inconclusive.

At the end of the semester, students had stronger beliefs regarding the importance
of music in the school curriculum, the need for music specialists, the need to understand
the musical development of children, that music instruction has extra-musical beneﬁts,
and that they would like to teach music in their classrooms. Students’ perceived level of
musicianship increased as did comfort levels for discussing musical concepts, using
listening and musically creative activities, playing rhythm instruments, and singing. High
comfort levels for using movement activities and playing musical games were retained.
Creating relaxed singing experiences, reinforcement of course content by general music
teacher observation, and the instructional sequence of presenting information through
modeling and demonstration with students creating and peer teaching related activities,
provided students opportunities to develop conﬁdence for teaching music, appearing to

result in positive attitudes and higher comfort levels for music and teaching music.

This dissertation is dedicated to my family with my love.

I would

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

throughout m I
admire your de'
being a model 1
Judith Palac. at
insights. and h.
for inspiring n1
gratitude and It.

made this doc.

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Cynthia Taggart for her guidance and mentorship
throughout my graduate degree program and with the completion of this dissertation. I
admire your devotion to academic excellence and intellectual pursuit and thank you for
being a model teacher. Thank you to my dissertation committee, Dr. John Kratus, Dr.
Judith Palac, and Dr. Midori Koga for reviewing this document, providing valuable
insights, and holding me to high academic standards. I also thank Dr. Colleen Conway
for inspiring me in the areas of teacher education and qualitative research. Finally, my
gratitude and love go to my husband, Bill, and our children whose sacriﬁce and support

made this document and degree a reality.

LIST OF TABl
LIST OF HGT

CHAPTER 1
RElTEW OF I
lntrodu
Relies

 

CHAPTER I
RENEW OF
lntrodt
Rei'iet-l

 

SUmni

CHAPTER 1
METHODOT
Settin
PanicI
The TI
The _\

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................. x
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................ xii
CHAPTER 1
REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................................... ..1
Introduction ............................................................................. 1
Review of Literature ................................................................... 4
K-12 National Standards of Music Education ............................. 4
Useful Skills and Understandings ........................................... 5
Attitude and Advocacy ....................................................... 8
Time Spent Teaching Music in the Classroom ............................ 8
Proﬁle of the Preservice Elementary Educator .......................... 11
Attitude Toward Teaching Music ......................................... 12
Conﬁdence in Teaching Music ............................................ 13
Curriculum Design and Implementation ................................. 16
Purpose of the Study ........................................................ 19
Research Questions of the Study .......................................... 19
Limitations of the Study .................................................... 20
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ................................................. 23
Introduction ........................................................................... 23
Review of Literature ................................................................. 23
Curricular Design ........................................................... 23
Purpose of Methods Courses .............................................. 24
Development of Methods Courses ........................................ 26
Attitude and Advocacy ...................................................... 29
Music Aptitude and Music Self-Concept ................................. 30
AM as Predictor of Musical Achievement
of Non-Music Majors ....................................................... 32
Comfort Levels and the Methods Course ................................ 34
Attitude and the Methods Course .......................................... 36
Summary ............................................................................... 39
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 41
Setting of the Study .................................................................. 41
Participants ............................................................................ 41
The Teacher-Researcher ............ . ................................................ 42
The Methods Course ................................................................. 42
Peer Teaching ............................................................... 44
Assignments .................................................................. 45
The Text ...................................................................... 46

vi

 

C HAT
RESL'

Design of the Study .................................................................. 47

Data Collection Procedures ......................................................... 48
Journals ....................................................................... 48
Quantitative and Qualitative Data Collection ........................... 48
Criterion Measures ................................................................... 49
Attitude and Level of Comfort Questionnaire ........................... 49
Advanced Measures of Music A udiation ................................. 5 1
Data Analysis ......................................................................... 53
Attitude and Level of Comfort Questionnaire ........................... 53
Student Response to the Course ........................................... 53
Triangulation of Sources ................................................... 53
Predictors of Attitude and Level of Comfort ............................ 54
Triangulation of Methods .................................................. 55
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA ....................................... 57
Introduction ........................................................................... 57
Analysis of Student Journals, Teacher-Researcher’s Journal
and Course Documents .............................................................. 57
Limitations of Journal Data Collection ................................... 57
Content Analysis of Journal Entries ...................................... 58

Research Question One: Does a particular course curriculum design and
implementation have an impact on the attitudes and comfort levels of
preservice elementary educators enrolled in an elementary music methods

course for non-music majors? ...................................................... 59
Looking Toward the Future ................................................ 59
Musical Development ...................................................... 60
Fear of Singing .............................................................. 60
Peer Teaching ................................................................ 61
Response to AM/ZA ......................................................... 62
Useﬁrlness of the Course ................................................... 63
Structure of the Course ..................................................... 64
Use of Musical Activities ................................................... 65
Future Use of Materials .................................................... 65

Research Question Two: How do preservice elementary educators respond
to various instructional strategies or assignments within a music methods

course for non-music majors? ...................................................... 67
Write and Talk ............................................................... 67
Unplanned Review .......................................................... 67
Modeling and Demonstration ............................................. 68
Peer Teaching Activities .................................................... 69
Peer Teaching Songs ......................................................... 70
Creating Movement Activities ............................................. 70
Listening Maps and Call Charts ........................................... 71
Enjoyment of Music and Movement ...................................... 74
Music Teacher Observations ............................................... 74

vii

Re
en:
reg

Less—Cited Strategies ....................................................... 75
Negative Response to Instructional Strategies ........................... 77
Research Question Three: Do the attitudes of preservice elementary educators
enrolled in an elementary music methods course for non-music majors change

regarding music instruction over the course of semester? ...................... 79
Inclusion of Music Within the School Curriculum ..................... 82
Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Items .............................. 82
Statistically Signiﬁcant Items .................................... 82
Discussion ........................................................... 83
Extra-Musical Beneﬁts of Music Instruction ............................ 84
Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Items ............................... 84
Statistically Signiﬁcant Items .................................... 84
Discussion ........................................................... 85
Classroom Teacher’s Role in Music Instruction ........................ 86
Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Items ............................... 86
Statistically Signiﬁcant Items .................................... 86
Discussion ........................................................... 86
Appreciation of Music ...................................................... 88
Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Items ............................... 88
Statistically Signiﬁcant Items .................................... 89
Discussion ........................................................... 89
Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Attitude Items ............................. 90
Results and Discussion ............................................ 90

Research Question Four: Does the level of comfort of preservice elementary
educators enrolled in an elementary music methods course for non-music

majors for teaching music change over the course of a semester? ............ 92
Comfort with Singing ...................................................... 95
Comfort with Listening ..................................................... 95
Comfort with Discussing Musical Concepts ............................. 96
Comfort with Using Rhythm Instruments ................................ 97
Comfort with Musically Creative Activities ............................. 97
Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Level of Comfort Items .................. 98
Level of Musicianship Item ................................................ 99

Research Question Five: Do any of the following: music aptitude,
self-rating of musical ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared
to peers, past music experience in an ensemble, or formal instruction
function as predictors of preservice elementary educators’ attitude

or comfort level? ..................................................................... 100
AM ........................................................................ 100
AA/ﬂllA as Predictor of Pretest Questionnaire Items .................... 103

Results and Discussion ............................................ 105

Self-Rating of Musical Ability, Self-Rating of Musical Ability

as Compared to Peers in the Course, Past Music Experience in an

Ensemble, and Years of F ormal Instruction as Predictors of Pretest

Questionnaire Items ......................................................... 105
Results and Discussion ............................................ 108

viii

AA/LMA as Predictor of Change of Attitude or
Level of Comfort ............................................................ 109
Results and Discussion ................................... ll 1
Past Music Experience in an Ensemble, Past Music Experience
. with Formal Instruction, Self-Rating of Musical Ability, Self-Rating
of Musical Ability as Compared to Peers as Predictors of Change

of Attitude or Level of Comfort .......................................... 11 1
Results and Discussion .................................... 114
CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................... 115
Summary .............................................................................. 115
Results and Conclusions ............................................................ 116
Predictors of Attitude and Level of Comfort ............................ 117
Attitudes Toward Music and Music Instruction ........................ 117
Comfort with Teaching Music ............................................. 118
Comfort and Instructional Strategies ..................................... 119
Perception of Musicianship ................................................ 120
Implications for Music Education .................................................. 120
Recommendations for Future Research ........................................... 122

APPENDICES
Appendix A: Human Subjects Approval .......................................... 127
Appendix B: Voluntary Consent Form ............................................ 128
Appendix C: Course Syllabus ...................................................... 129
Appendix D: Music Teaching Survey ............................................. 136
REFERENCES ................................................................................. 138

ix

T ABLE 1
AIIIIUde Q
Means anC

TABLE 2
Means. St:
for Ques:i<

TABLE 3
Level of C
Means and

TABLE 4
Means. Sta
for Level 0

TABLE 5
Means and

TABLE 6
lntercorrela

TABLE 7
Pretest Que

TAB LE 8
”mall-T01

TABLE 9

PTetesr Que
Pm Music

and Sle-RE

TA~T3LE 10
Press One
and Self-RE

TABLE l 1

hange of ,

A‘lﬂL‘T‘Tor

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1
Attitude Questionnaire Items: Pretest and Posttest
Means and Standard Deviations ............................................................. 80

TABLE 2
Means, Standard Deviations, and Paired-Comparison t-values
for Questionnaire Items ....................................................................... 81

TABLE 3
Level of Comfort Questionnaire Items: Pretest and Posttest
Means and Standard Deviations ............................................................ 93

TABLE 4
Means, Standard Deviations, and Paired-Comparison t-values
for Level of Comfort Questionnaire Items ................................................. 94

TABLE 5
Means and Standard Deviations for AMMA ............................................... 101

TABLE 6
Intercorrelations of AMMA .................................................................. 102

TABLE 7
Pretest Questionnaire with AA/ﬂl/{A-Tonal and AAM-Rhythm as Predictors. . . . . . 104

TABLE 8
AMMA-Tonal and AMMA-Rhythm Predictors of Pretest Questionnaire Items ....... 105

TABLE 9

Pretest Questionnaire with Past Music Experience in an Ensemble,

Past Music Experience with Formal Instruction, Self-Rating of Musical Ability,

and Self-Rating of Musical Ability As Compared to Peers as Predictors ............. 107

TABLE 10
Pretest Questionnaire Items with Past Music Experience in an Ensemble,

and Self-Rating of Musical Ability as Predictors ......................................... 108

TABLE 11
Change of Attitude and Level of Comfort with AAM-Tonal

and AA/ﬂl/IA-Rhythm as Predictors .......................................................... 110

TABLE 12
AMM-Tonal and AA/ﬂl/IA-Rhythm as Predictors of Attitude Change .................. 111

TABLE 13

Change Of?!
Past Music ‘.
and Self-Ra

TABLE 14
Change of .-
Self-Rating
as Compare

TABLE 13

Change of Attitude and Level of Comfort with Past Music Experience in an Ensemble,
Past Music Experience with Formal Instruction, Self-Rating of Musical Ability,

and Self-Rating of Musical Ability As Compared to Peers as Predictors ............. 1 12

TABLE 14

Change of Attitude and Level of Comfort with Fast Music Experience in an Ensemble,
Self-Rating of Musical Ability, and Self-Rating of Musical Ability

as Compared to Peers as Predictors ......................................................... 113

xi

FIGLRE 1
C ompar i507

FIGLRE 2

C cmpari SO!

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1
Comparison of Pretest and Posttest Attitude Questionnaire Means .................... 79

FIGURE 2
Comparison of Pretest and Posttest Level of Comfort Questionnaire Means. . . . . . 93

xii

 

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Chapter I
Review of Literature
W

The preparation of elementary classroom teachers for teaching music has been a
long-standing concern of the music education profession in the United States (Mark &
Gary, 1992). The routine use of classroom teachers for teaching music may be traced
back to the mid-1800’s when the United States developed a system of common schools.
Because most of these schools did not use music specialists until the fourth grade, music
instruction was left in the hands of classroom teachers. Those classroom teachers who
desired to obtain teaching positions in kindergarten through third grade were required to
have skills in playing piano and teaching music. Eventually, teacher education programs
in normal schools began to require all classroom teachers to enroll in music courses.
These courses were most often iﬁindamentals and music methods courses (Mark & Gary,
1992)

Nearly a century later, most teacher education institutions continued to require
prospective teachers to enroll in a music fundamentals and methods course (Fleming,
1953). As a result of these requirements, questions began to surface regarding the musical
competency of prospective classroom teachers and how best to prepare and enable them
to teach music (Fleming, 1953; Linton, 1954; Logan, 1967). In the publication, Music
Competencies for Classroom Teachers: An Initial Report ﬁom Task Group IV of the
Music Educator '5 National C orference Commission on Teacher Education (MEN C,
1971) MENC recommended that music specialists, not classroom teachers, should hold

the primary responsibility for teaching music in elementary schools. However, the task

force also recognized the need for classroom teachers to have music teaching
competencies, especially in the absence of a music specialist or as a means to
accommodate the expressive needs of children.

More recently, MENC (1996) has sought to answer questions regarding the skills
needed to teach music. MENC determined that, to effectively teach music, teachers
should: a) have competency in all K-12 National Standards; b) possess a wide, ﬂinctional
musical knowledge base; c) be effective models; and d) be able to provide content-based
guidance to students at all levels of musical learning (MENC, 1996). These criteria
ﬁrrther conﬁrmed that music specialists should be delivering music instruction.

The MENC competencies are agreed upon by music education professionals, yet
they are typically not viewed as necessary by the general education profession. Many
states certify early childhood and elementary education majors to teach music; however it
is often after they fulﬁll a minimal number of credit hours in a music fundamentals
course, music methods course, or a combination of the two (AEP, 2000-2001). This is
alarming to the music education profession. Because music teacher attrition is at an all
time high, a shortage of music specialists has developed. In addition, the number of
students entering the profession is declining (Asmus, 1999; Lautzenheiser, 2001), leaving
many school districts to hire teachers who are unskilled to teach music. These teachers
often possess alternative or emergency certiﬁcation (Asmus, 1999). Therefore, for
children in their musically-formative years, music instruction is primarily provided by
teachers who have little education in how to best teach music and foster musical growth
(MENC & NAEYC, 2000).

The importance of music in the development of the child as a whole

 

person has bee

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person has been the current focus of research and changes of teaching practice. Evidence
supports that the most crucial years of musical development for children occur between
birth and the early elementary years (Caine & Caine, 1994; Foundation for Music-Based
Learning, 1996; Gordon, 1990; Gordon, 1997; Newsweek, 1997). While the importance
of music instruction in the early years seems to be accepted by the educational
community (N AEYC, 1997), many states have not required early childhood and
elementary schools to provide all students with music instruction. Therefore, the amount
of music instruction that most children at the early childhood and elementary levels
receive during their musically formative years is inadequate to support proper musical
development (AEP, 2000—2001; Palmer & Sims, 1993; Scott-Kassner, 1999).

Early childhood educators are the adults who are most likely to use music during
their interactions with children because of the amount of time that children spend in their
classrooms. Therefore, the music education of the early childhood educator must be of
high quality and sufficient depth (Scott-Kassner, 1999). Yet, preparing preservice
elementary educators to teach music in a limited amount of time, and with a minimal
number of credits, presents a unique dilemma for the music teacher educator. Typically,
preservice elementary educators lack depth in personal musicianship skills, and they need
to be taught how to deliver appropriate music instruction to the children that they will
eventually have in their classrooms (Austin, 2000; Fox 1993; Hair & Smith, 1989;
Jeanneret, 1997; Kritzmire, 1991; Mills, 1989; Richards, 1999; Towell, Snyder & Poor,
1993). Therefore, designing cunicular and instructional strategies tailored to the musical
and professional needs of preservice elementary educators should become the primary

goal of the music teacher educator (Bowers, 1997; Byo, 1999; Fox, 1993; Gauthier &

McCrafY- l
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McCrary, 1999; Hair & Smith, 1989; Jeanneret, 1997; Kelly, 1998; Richards, 1999;
Towell, Snyder & Poor, 1993). The ﬁrst step for the music teacher educator is to
determine what outcomes are desired (Toohey, 2000). To that end, an examination of
studies conducted with practitioners in the ﬁelds of early childhood and elementary
education, and their use or non-use of music in the classroom, will help to link actual
classroom practice to the music methods course and provide perspective on practical
outcomes.
Review of Literature

Studies conducted with inservice elementary educators concerning music
instruction have primarily focused on: a) the use of the K-12 National Standards; b) the
music skills and activities that are perceived useful and implemented by inservice
elementary educators; c) attitude and advocacy; and d) the amount of time inservice
elementary educators actually spend teaching music. While these literature topics seem
comprehensive, there remains a need for more research concerning effective educational
models to help preservice and inservice preschool and elementary school educators use to
music in the classroom (Gauthier & McCrary, 1999; Kelly, 1998; Sanders & Baker,
1991; Scott-Kassner, 1991; Towell, Snyder, & Poor, 1993).

K-12 National Standards of Music Education

 

Byo (1999) surveyed elementary music teachers (n=122) and fourth
grade generalists (n=122) with a 63-item questionnaire in order to determine their
perceptions of the feasibility of implementing the National Standards of Music Education
(MENC, 1996). Findings revealed that the generalist teachers were least comfortable with

the standard relating to improvising/composing. They were most comfortable with the

standardS ‘6
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standards regarding understanding music in relation to other subjects and understanding
music in relation to history and culture. The standards with which the generalists were
most comfortable demanded the least amount of musical skill. Overall, generalists felt a
need for collaboration with specialists and cited lack of time, resources, training, ability,
responsibility, and interest for the non-use of the standards.

Kelly (1998) examined the relationship between the Pre-Kindergarten
Performance Standards for Music (MENC, 1996) and prekindergarten teachers’
perception of useful skills and activities. He found that 73 percent of the 210 teachers
who participated in his study were unaware of the National Standards for pre-
kindergarten music education. These teachers therefore were unable to relate useful skills
and understandings to the National Standards for Music Education.

Implications of these studies are that music methods instructors must provide
preservice and inservice elementary educators with training to develop the musical skills
as set forth in the National Standards, work to develop higher levels of conﬁdence to use
these skills if the National Standards are to be adhered to as part of classroom practice,
and raise the level of awareness of the National Standards in the general education
community.

Useﬁil Skills and Understandings

In the same investigation of pre-kindergarten teachers, Kelly (1998) also
examined: a) what music skills and understandings, as acquired through methods courses,
were currently in practice; b) what music skills and understandings might be in practice
had they been a part of the methods course curriculum; c) what useful music skills and

understandings had been acquired outside of methods courses; and d) the pre-

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kindergarten teachers’ basic educational backgrounds, their self-perceptions of musical
ability, and how those related to their perceptions of useﬁrl skills and understandings.

A questionnaire was completed by 210 private and public pre-kindergarten
program directors. Responses showed that the most studied and used activities were (in
descending order) movement activities, performance on rhythm instruments, leading and
teaching songs, providing creative musical experiences, and developing listening lessons.
Activities that were the least studied and used were composition, music reading, using a
basal series, integrating music and computers, and playing the autoharp. Most program
directors were unfamiliar with improvisation, composition, basal series, and integrating
music and computers. Respondents reported that they learned how to lead and teach
songs, how to select appropriate songs, how to accompany singing experiences, and how
to use taped recordings for singing experiences from sources outside of the methods
course. About one-third said that they used music for 30 to 50 percent of the day. Another
one-third reported using music for less than ten percent of the day. Approximately two-
thirds of the sample viewed themselves as musically average.

In this study, preservice training did not result in a comprehensive development of
music teaching skills. The activities that were perceived as being most useﬁil were not
from a traditional, music theory-based fundamentals approach. Kelly states that this
population needs guidance in using the information on music learning. While Byo (1999)
found that classroom teachers are comfortable with integrating music with other subjects,
Kelly recommends that methods courses focus more on integrating music instruction into
other subject areas. In addition, he recommends that music methods instructors approach

the methods course with student comfort in mind by beginning with activities that

encourage conﬁdence and success.

In a survey of 159 early childhood and elementary educators, Saunders and Baker
(1991) found that 88 percent believe that music skills and understandings that supplement
other curricular areas are the most important to their teaching. In addition, most consider
music teaching to be the music specialist’s responsibility. Other topics believed to be
useﬁil for their teaching purposes were providing creative experiences for their students
(85%), selecting appropriate songs (79%), developing movement activities (79%),
selecting recordings (79%), developing listening lessons (75%), leading and teaching
songs (69%), understanding characteristics of the child’s voice (59%), and playing the
piano (52%). The researchers stated that there were music specialists present in the
schools of the teachers who were surveyed. The study did not explore the extent to which
an activity was used or how an activity was implemented. The conclusions ﬁ'om this
study imply that music methods instructors should develop a wide variety of music skills
and understandings within preservice teachers and provide them with techniques for
utilizing these skills and understandings when using music to supplement other curricular
areas.

Like Kelly (1996), Saunders and Baker also recommend that preservice students
receive guidance in integrating music with other subject areas. The researchers advise
that this guidance will help preservice teachers to be more successful, develop positive
attitudes concerning musical ability, and, in turn, apply what they have learned when
becoming inservice teachers. Further research is called for, especially in schools in which
no music specialist is present. In addition, the researchers stated that investigation of the

effects of preservice music instruction on inservice implementation is needed.

Attitudeand Advocacy

Kritzmire (1991) studied how inservice elementary teachers act as music
education advocates. Citing the need for supporters of music education and the need to
develop positive attitudes toward music in the elementary years (Asmus, 1986a),
Kritzmire studied inservice (n=47) and preservice (n=19) elementary educators. She
examined both groups’ recollections of their elementary music experiences, their most
memorable music experiences, the attitudes that came about ﬁ'om those experiences, the
involvement of inservice teachers with music in the classroom, and their attitudes toward
music. A four-section questionnaire was used to gather data. Kritzmire found similarities
in the past music instruction of both groups, citing experience with group singing, using a
music series book, learning to read notation, and learning folk songs as common to both.
Preservice teachers had experienced more activities using “newer” approaches, such as
recorder instruction, use of mallet instruments, and writing notation. For both groups,
there was little involvement with creative activities. The majority of inservice teachers
felt incompetent to teach music. They also felt that there was not enough time allotted
within the school day to teach it. When music was used in the classroom, it was primarily
for recreational purposes. Kritzmire suggests that inservice and preservice elementary
educators need encouragement in methods courses as well as within the schools to
provide meaningful and memorable music instruction for children. Additionally, with
encouragement and the development of music teaching skills, positive attitudes will be
fostered, thereby increasing advocacy for music education among classroom teachers.
Time Spent TeachingMusic in the Classroom

Amen (1982) investigated the amount of time inservice elementary educators

spent teaching music. School systems were stratiﬁed and then randomly selected based
on size and cost categories. In each K through grade 6 school, elementary classroom
teachers and principals completed forms and questionnaires (n=800, 98% return).
Answers from those teachers (n=688) and principals (n=46) who had completely ﬁlled
out forms were used in the data analysis. Results indicated that the elementary teachers in
this study spent a minimal amount of time on music instruction, with almost 80 percent of
those surveyed teaching music between 0 and 10 minutes per day. The strongest predictor
of the time spent on music instruction was the grade level taught by the teacher. Music
instruction decreased as grade level increased and the majority of inservice elementary
educators surveyed were not meeting the minimal amount of music teaching
requirements for their school district. Amen recommended future research on variables
related to grade-level.

Bresler (1993) conducted a three-year, ethnographic study that examined music
instruction by inservice elementary educators and the role of music within the school.
Bresler spent 120 hours observing elementary classroom teachers and music specialists in
an urban setting and 120 hours observing elementary teachers and music specialists in a
mral setting. A total of 23 teachers were observed. In addition, she interviewed 39
classroom teachers, three music specialists, one retired music specialist, and school and
district administrators. Data included transcribed interviews, district music curriculum
guidelines, music textbooks, and resource books for songs. She found that few classroom
teachers included music as a regular part of their curriculum. Most teachers did not feel
comfortable teaching music, because they lacked musical training and experience.

Typically, elementary teachers used only singing and listening to music in their

classrooms. The time spent on teaching music in the classroom varied widely from one
teaching context to another. Bresler found that, at the kindergarten level, the amount of
time spent teaching music ranged from 60 minutes per week for the musically inclined
teacher down to 30 minutes per year for others. The theme of music as a background
activity was repeated across grade levels. Classroom teachers were reluctant to teach
music, even more than the visual arts. They perceived music instruction as requiring
special skills, special language and terminology, and pedagogical practices that they did
not possess unless they had prior formal music training. Music methods courses were not
perceived as relevant at the time they were taken, and if they were perceived as relevant,
the content was forgotten due to the lack of continual practice. Almost all of the teachers
were musically illiterate and unable to use music texts and resources as curricular guides.
Music was often relegated to programs and holiday festivities. Bresler states that these
conditions put music in a double-bind; this type of music instruction fails to draw on
higher-order, cognitive aspects, and music is marginalized for its dispensable role as
entertainment. According to Bresler, preservice music teacher educators should strive to
develop music teaching competency and expertise within preservice educators, and to
emphasize the legitimacy of music instruction within the schools.

Understanding the perceptions of music instruction held by inservice elementary
educators and the ways in which they use music in the classroom provides the music
teacher educator with an awareness of potential outcomes of pre-college, college, and
methods course experiences. However, another important aspect, the musical
backgrounds of the students who attend the music methods course, should also be

considered when designing the methods course curriculum and instructional strategies

10

(Toohey, 2000). Following is a music-based proﬁle of the preservice elementary
educator.
Proﬁle of the Preservice Elementag Educator

Colleges and universities typically do not require college-bound students to have
completed music courses as a requirement for admission (Hair & Smith, 1989). In fact,
many states do not require ﬁne arts credit for graduation from high school (AEP, 2000-
2001). Because of this, many preservice elementary educators may be classiﬁed as non-
musicians due to a lack of training and education (Corbin, 1988; Hair & Smith, 1989;
Kritzmire, 1991; Mills, 1989; NBA, 1989; Wolverton, 1995). These students, who are
learning to teach all subjects, are the least conﬁdent in their ability to teach music due to
a lack of musical skill (Gifford, 1993; Hagen, 2000; Mills, 1995/96; 1989). In addition,
they have little experience in lesson planning and an inability to sequence music learning
and instruction (Corbin, 1988).

Prior learning and experiences greatly inﬂuence the approximately twenty years
of personal attitudes and feelings that students bring with them when they come to class
(Asmus, 1986a; Austin, 2000; Fox, 1993; Grossman, 1990; Hair & Smith, 1989;
Knowles, 1992; Kritzmire, 1991; Lewis, 1991). Many preservice teachers question
whether 3 methods course is relevant to their professional and academic needs
(Kritzmire, 1991). Often, students view music instruction or a music methods course as
neither being “real” instruction nor a meaningful learning experience (Kritzmire, 1991).
In addition, many students lack conﬁdence to teach music and are intimidated by music
methods courses (Mills, 1995/96; Richards, 1999). To optimally engage students with the

course content, the music teacher educator should take into account these attitudes and

11

preconceptions. Moreover, the music teacher educator should keep in mind that the
learning that occurs from the many years of being a student, along with additional prior
experiences, may actually hold more power than the effect of taking a music methods
course (Kritzmire, 1991).
Attitude TowaLd Teaching Music

Many factors contribute to the success, failure, and attitude formation of
preservice elementary education majors teaching music. Kvet and Watkins (1993) report
that developing musical ability and providing ﬁequent opportunities for success within
the methods course leads to the development of positive feelings. Reifstack (1980)
determined that ﬁeld and peer teaching experiences improved preservice elementary
educator’s attitudes regarding their ability to teach music and enabled competency
development. Kritzmire (1991) suggests that music instruction and inservice teacher
perceptions and recollections of previous instruction are powerﬁrl in forming attitudes
toward music and music teaching, and that the effect of a student’s musical past should
be attended to as methods courses and music curricula are designed and implemented.

Lewis (1991) administered a survey that was designed to elicit information on
attitudes and comfort levels for teaching music to preservice elementary educators
(N=114). The survey was administered on the ﬁrst and last day of classes of a music
methods course. Data obtained ﬁ'om pre-test and post-test administrations revealed
greater agreement at the end of the semester with the following statements found within
the questionnaire: a) “Every school should have a music specialist,” b) “Music should be
considered a basic, or core subject,” c) “Appreciating music depends on knowing a great

deal about it,” d) “The classroom teacher should spend time on music,” and e) “I would

12

like to teach music in my own classroom.” A primary conclusion ﬁ'om this study was that
inservice elementary educators who feel comfortable directing music activities with
children are more likely to teach music than people with musical experience who lack
teaching ability.

These ﬁndings support that developing music teaching competencies, providing
teaching experiences designed for success and comfort, and attending to past musical
experiences are important in forming preservice elementary educators’ attitudes toward
teaching music. Another aspect in the shaping of preservice elementary educators to
teach music effectively is the development of conﬁdence to teach music.

Conﬁdence in TeachingMusic

Unlike other subjects within the general education curriculum, inservice
elementary educators ﬁ'equently cite lack of conﬁdence and weakness in musicianship as
primary reasons for not teaching music within the classroom (Amen, 1982; Bresler, 1993;
Gifford, 1993; Mills, 1989; Richards, 1999). According to Barry (1992), when a teacher
lacks conﬁdence to teach effectively, children are not provided with the same number and
variety of musical experiences as when they are with a teacher who exhibits greater levels
of conﬁdence in learning and using unfamiliar songs, teaching basic musical concepts,
and teaching without a recording.

In contrast, Amen (1982) found that grade level taught is the best predictor of
whether an inservice teacher will use music, suggesting that teachers do not necessarily
use more music when possessing higher levels of conﬁdence. Also, Gifford (1993)
demonstrated that music methods courses for preservice teachers had little impact on

competence and conﬁdence of those preservice teachers to teach music in the ﬁrst years

13

of teaching. Moreover, the participants in this study recognized a need to develop musical
competency, yet their value and enjoyment of music decreased as a result of the music
methods course.

Richards (1999) found that inservice elementary educators’ music backgrounds
and their preservice education contribute to conﬁdence levels. When teachers have had
positive musical experiences and are musically literate, they have a higher degree of
conﬁdence in their ability to teach music. Negative past musical experiences or no
formal training leads to overrating the level of skill needed to teach music (Jeanneret,
1997) and a lack of conﬁdence to learn skills (Gifford, 1993).

A lack of conﬁdence in musicianship also contributes to preservice teachers’ fear
of failure in methods courses (Austin, 2000; Asmus, 1986a). Preservice teachers’ reports
of low conﬁdence and their negative response regarding their musicianship levels are
often ill-founded (Mills, 1995/96). Mills found that preservice elementary educators
enrolled in a musicianship course (n=33) entered the course with musicianship
substantially exceeding the level of musicianship of primary aged children. In addition,
the preservice teachers increased their level of musicianship by the end of the course.

Jeanneret (1997) found a signiﬁcant relationship between preservice elementary
educators’ (n=222) conﬁdence levels to teach music at the beginning of a fundamentals
course and their conﬁdence levels at the end of their preservice training. Modes of
content delivery and teaching strategies had an effect on preservice elementary educators’
attitudes and conﬁdence levels but not on their musical achievement. Jeanneret identiﬁed

the need to examine curriculum construction, as well as the role of teacher effectiveness

and teaching strategies in light of the development of conﬁdence to teach music. When

14

developing preservice teachers’ conﬁdence to teach music is a major goal within the
methods course, preservice teachers’ conﬁdence levels can be raised (Austin, 2000;
Mills, 1989; Richards, 1999).

Music aptitude may be linked to higher levels of conﬁdence in non-music majors.
Sanders (2000) reported a signiﬁcant relationship between scores on the Advanced
Measures of Music Audiation (AM/IA) (Gordon, 1990) and scores on the music subtest of
Vispoel ’s Arts Self-Perception Inventory (1993). Sanders examined the relationship of the
self-concept in music to music background and music aptitude of non-music majors
(n=84), concluding that music aptitude may have an effect on music self-concept. Also,
he found that a person’s music self-concept may be linked to higher levels of conﬁdence
in teaching music.

These studies reveal conﬂicting ﬁndings as to the role conﬁdence plays in
preservice elementary educators’ abilities to teach music. On one hand it appears that
methods courses are not useﬁrl in developing conﬁdence within preservice educators and
that conﬁdence has little impact on with the amount of time an inservice teacher spends
teaching music. On the other hand, others found that conﬁdence may be an important
aspect of the development of musicianship and teaching effectiveness of preservice
educators. Clearly, more information is needed about the role of conﬁdence in preservice
teachers’ development of music teaching skills. Also, further research is needed to
determine appropriate curricular construction and teaching strategies that assist in the
development of preservice educators’ conﬁdence in personal musicianship and music

teaching, which will result in increased use of music in the classroom.

15

Curriculum Design and Implementation

When designing a course for preservice elementary educators, the teacher
educator makes many curricular decisions. One decision is what content will be included
(Fox, 1993; Gauthier and McCrary, 1999; Hair and Smith, 1989; Saunders & Baker,
1991). Another is how the content will be delivered (Bowers, 1997; Fox, 1993; Gauthier
and McCrary, 1999; Hair and Smith, 1989; Kelly, 1999). In addition, the level of
musical skill that students bring to the class, their level of musical skill to be developed,
and their acquisition of skills for teaching music activities and concepts must be
considered (Bowers 1997; Hair and Smith, 1989; Kelly, 1999).

In an effort to obtain information regarding preservice teachers’ pro-college and
college music experiences and attitudes toward music, Hair and Smith (1989) surveyed
early childhood majors (n=74) and music education majors (n=41). The questionnaire
was designed speciﬁcally to identify the similarities and differences between early
childhood education majors’ and music education majors’ music experiences and
attitudes. Hair and Smith found that early childhood majors and music education majors
received similar elementary music experiences. However, as elementary education
majors moved through their junior and senior high school years, their music participation
decreased while the music participation of music education majors increased. The results
from this study led Hair and Smith to believe that most preservice early childhood
educators do not have the depth of musical background to become effective music
teachers. They believe that teacher educators in music should: a) identify information,
knowledge, and skills most necessary for preservice educators; b) develop instructional

programs that foster skill development and positive attitudes; and c) instill the importance

l6

of music education in the curriculum so that preservice teachers will ultimately provide
music instruction for their students.

Gauthier and McCrary (1999) found consensus regarding the types, content, and
purpose of music courses offered to preservice elementary educators. Surveys were sent
to 530 schools accredited by National Association of Schools of Music (NASM).
Returned questionnaires yielded 276 responses that were used in data analysis. Music
methods instructors included developing lesson planning skills, increasing positive
attitudes toward singing in the classroom, and providing music teaching experiences in
their course purpose statements. Content viewed as important by methods instructors
focused on teaching methodology and included song leading skills, age-appropriate
music concepts, child development, developing lesson plans, peer teaching, and
development of the child’s singing voice. Gauthier and McCrary reported that the overall
factors that inﬂuence curricular decisions included the instructor’s philosophy and
teaching experience, along with student background, current trends in music education,
and state or institutional requirements.

Kelly (1999) identiﬁed movement activities, performance on rhythm instruments,
leading and teaching songs, providing creative musical experiences, and developing
listening lessons as the most studied and used activities within the classroom in a study
conducted with pre-Kindergarten teachers (n=210). Through a survey (n=159), Saunders
and Baker (1991) found that inservice early childhood and elementary educators
identiﬁed music skills and understandings that supplement other curricular areas as the
most important in the classroom. The use of creative experiences, selecting appropriate

songs, developing movement activities, selecting recordings, developing listening

l7

lessons, leading and teaching songs, understanding characteristics of the child’s voice,
and playing the piano followed.

The studies conducted by Kelly (1999) and Saunders and Baker (1991) reﬂect
current practice by inservice teachers, while the study by Gauthier and McCrary (I999)
reﬂects current practice by methods instructors. According to these studies, it appears that
there is agreement between what is taught in methods courses and what is put into
practice within the classroom. However, it remains that methods instructors often ﬁnd
themselves in an uncomfortable situation when making curricular decisions (Bowers,
1997). This may be due to the remediation needed for preservice educators to develop
musical skills (Hair and Smith, 1989) and the lack of time within the methods course to
develop such skills. Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect preservice elementary educators to
develop personal musicianship skills, particularly relating to use of the singing voice,
lesson planning skills, content delivery techniques, and an awareness of philosophical
issues within the context of a music methods course (Bowers, 1997). The expectations of
music professionals for preservice elementary educators may be too high (Austin, 2000;
Bowers, 1997). Music methods instructors might consider approaching the methods
course with the belief that musical ability can be improved and by keeping student
comfort in mind by beginning with activities that encourage conﬁdence and success
(Austin, 2000; Kelly, 1999; Mills, 1989; Richards, 1999). In addition, the importance of
ﬁrture inservice elementary educators to the success of music education programs should
be taken into account (Hair & Smith, 1989; Kritzmire, 1991; Lewis, 1991).

When constructing methods courses using best educational practice, it is not

enough to know about current practice in music methods courses for preservice

18

elementary educators. While current practice was found to emphasize teaching

methodology, song leading skills, age—appropriate music concepts, child development,

developing lesson plans, peer teaching, and development of the child’s singing voice

(Gauthier & McCrary, 1999), there is no contextual basis for explaining why certain

content was chosen, when and how content was delivered, the reactions of students to the

curriculum, or whether context may have had an impact on the development of students’
attitude or comfort level for music and music teaching. Jeanneret (1997) identiﬁed a need
for focused study on curricular construction and how it is implemented. In order to
improve methods courses and set realistic student expectations, more information may be
gleaned from research conducted within the actual context of music methods courses for
preservice elementary educators.

Therefore, with the intent of improving music methods instruction for preservice
elementary educators, the purpose of this research is to examine the instructional practice
within a particular music methods course, and gather information about preservice
elementary educators and their reactions to such a methods course.

The speciﬁc research questions are as follows:

1. Does a particular course cuniculum design and implementation have an impact on the
attitudes and comfort levels of preservice elementary educators enrolled in a
particular elementary music methods course for non-music majors?

2. How do preservice elementary educators enrolled in a particular elementary music
methods course for non-music majors respond to various instructional strategies,
or assignments within a music methods course for non-music majors?

3. Do the attitudes regarding music instruction change over the course of the semester

19

for preservice elementary educators enrolled in a particular elementary music
methods course for non-music majors?

4. Does the level of comfort for teaching music of preservice elementary educators
enrolled in a particular elementary music methods course for non-music majors
change over the course of the semester?

5. Do music aptitude, self-rating of music ability, self-rating of musical ability as
compared to peers in the course, past music experience in an ensemble, or formal
instruction function as predictors of attitudes or comfort levels of preservice
elementary educators enrolled in a particular elementary music methods course for
non-majors for teaching music?

Limitations of the Study
Curricular issues in music education are multiple and complex. Hanley and

Montgomery (2002), in a critical survey of literature regarding curricular implementation

and development, concluded that a greater understanding of music teaching and learning

should be a focus of current research, speciﬁcally as it applies to practice. With this in
mind, the central points of inquiry for this investigation are the teacher-researcher’s
curricular design and instructional practices, as well as the attitudes, comfort levels, and
reactions of the students who are enrolled in her course. The research will be conducted
from a moderate interpretive perspective, from which stems the belief that a combination
of research methodologies will provide a more comprehensive investigation (Elliott,

2002). The combination of research methods will provide more depth into the inquiry of

the curricular design and implementation and the meanings constructed by the

participants of the study. In this type of inquiry, the role of teacher-researcher as

20

observer-participant is critical in the investigation of how the learning of preservice
elementary educators, their development of beliefs regarding music education, and their
comfort levels for teaching music ﬁrnction in regard to her classroom practice.

The course purpose and content will be similar to what Gauthier and McCrary
(1999) found to exist among other (N=276) preservice elementary music methods
courses. In addition, developing positive attitudes and comfort levels for teaching music
will be a focal point for the teacher-researcher as Hair and Smith (1989), Lewis (1990),
and Kritzmire (1991) have suggested. However, the use of songs and chants without
words, the instructional method of informal music guidance, Laban movement,
individualized music instruction, and skills sessions that focus on the development of
audiation will be incorporated into the course. These instructional aspects were not
mentioned in any other related studies. That these will be incorporated into the course
curriculum stems from the teacher-researcher’s theoretical underpinnings of Gordon’s
music learning theory (Gordon, 1997). Music learning theory is “. . .the analysis and
synthesis of the sequential manner in which we learn music” (Valerio, Reynolds, Bolton,
Taggart, & Gordon, 1998, p.129) and provides a framework to guide music teaching
practice in a way that corresponds to how children learn music developmentally.

Certain limitations exist when conducting research of this type. The results of this
study will only be transferable to the extent that the participants and context is similar to
that of the current study. This is due to the small sample size (N=15) and the perspective
from which the investigation is conducted. Because the teacher-researcher is a participant
in this study, there is greater potential for researcher bias.

Each class period within a particular course is a unique event in time and cannot

21

 

 

 

bl

 

be replicated. Likewise, any course as a whole is unique, as is the way in which a teacher
interacts with students, course content, and course structure to facilitate student learning.
Yet, research of this type holds the possibility of serving the music education profession
through the examination of instructional practice within a particular music methods
course for preservice elementary educators. In many respects, this is a case study of one
particular music methods course, and, while the results of this study may not be
generalizable, they may be transferable, or locally applied to other similar educational

settings.

22

Chapter II
Review of Related Literature

Introduction

This study is concerned with improving instruction in music methods courses
for non-music majors. More speciﬁcally, it is concerned with the impact of curricular
design and delivery on the attitude and level of comfort of non-music majors to teach
music. In addition, this study takes into account how students respond to the curricular
design and implementation. Finally, this study seeks to determine whether music
aptitude, self-rating of musical ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers
in the course, past music experience in an ensemble, or formal instruction ﬁrnction as
predictors of preservice elementary educators’ attitudes or comfort levels for teaching
speciﬁc activities. Therefore, the literature related speciﬁcally to this study involves: a)
research conducted on the design and implementation of elementary general music
methods courses for non-music majors; b) the attitude and level of comfort for teaching
music of non-music majors enrolled in music methods courses; c) non-music majors’
music aptitude and its relationship to their attitudes and comfort levels for teaching
music; (I) the relationship of non-music majors’ self-rating of musical ability, and self-
rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course to their attitudes and comfort
levels for teaching music; and e) non-music majors’ past musical experience in an
ensemble or formal instruction and their attitudes and comfort levels for teaching music.
Following is a review of literature related speciﬁcally to the present study.

Review of Literature
Curriculafr Design

A variety of studies have been conducted with preservice elementary educators

23

with the intent of improving instruction within the methods course. More recent
investigations have examined the effect of students’ self-evaluations of teacher intensity
behaviors (Colwell, 1995), song leading effectiveness and self-ratings (Barry & Orlofsky,
1997), the evaluation of teaching experiences (Barry and Johnson, 1994), sequential
patterns for teaching (Bowers, 1997), the effects of class voice and breath management
on vocal knowledge, attitudes and vocal performance (Phillips & Vispoel, 1990),
reﬂective practice (Barry, 1996), and familiarity with basic song repertoire (Prickett &
Bridges, 1998). These investigations examined speciﬁc aspects of music method
curricula for non-music or preservice elementary education majors. The present study is
concerned with how the overall curriculum ﬁrnctions in regard to student attitudes and
comfort levels for teaching speciﬁc music activities. Therefore, a closer look at how
music methods curricula for preservice elementary educators are currently being
constructed follows.
Purpose of Methods Courses

A study conducted by Gauthier and McCrary (1999) found consensus regarding
the types, content, and purpose of music courses that are offered for preservice
elementary educators among higher educational institutions. Surveys were sent to 530
schools accredited by National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). Two-hundred-
seventy-six questionnaires (47% return) were returned and used in data analysis.

Gauthier and McCrary identiﬁed three types of music education courses that are
offered for elementary educators: fundamentals, methods, and a combination of
ﬁrndamentals and methods. On the survey, instructors were asked for their course

purpose statements and to deﬁne external factors that inﬂuenced curricular decisions and

24

course objectives for the methods courses they taught. In the ﬁnal section of the survey,
subjects rated how often each of the 27 topics were covered in the course, using a 5-
point Likert scale.

Results revealed that those who taught ﬁrndamentals courses agreed more on
course purposes than did the methods instructors and combined fundamentals/methods
course instructors. Respondents overwhelmingly agreed that ﬁrndamentals courses should
develop an understanding of musical concepts. Content in these courses centered
primarily on the elements of music: melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and expression.
Music methods instructors identiﬁed developing lesson planning skills, increasing
positive attitudes toward singing in the classroom, and providing music teaching
experiences in their course purpose statements. Ninety-eight percent of the methods
instructors viewed teaching methodology and song leading skills to be most important,
followed by understanding of age-appropriate music concepts (97%), understanding of
child development (96%), lesson plan development (94%), peer teaching (92%), and
development of the child’s singing voice (91%). Instructors of the combined
fundamentals/methods courses not only agreed with the course purpose statements
chosen by both fundamentals and methods instructors, but also identiﬁed the need for
developing positive attitudes for working with the music specialist. Course content for
the combined fundamentals/methods courses ranged ﬁ'om developing musical skills and
knowledge of music concepts, to teaching methodology. Gauthier and McCrary reported
that overall factors inﬂuencing curricular decisions included the instructor’s philosophy
and teaching experience, along with student background, current trends in music

education, and state or institutional requirements.

25

Gauthier and McCrary concluded that music teacher educators believe that
elementary education majors should, at the least, be expected to develop basic
knowledge, skills in, and understandings of music in order to be able to include music
across the curriculum. They suggested ﬁrrther research regarding the relationship
between the perceptions and expectations of teachers in colleges of education and the
expectations held by music teacher educators.

Development of Methods Courses

The process of developing a curriculum for preservice elementary educators may
take shape in a variety of ways. Hair and Smith (1989) conducted a study that was
designed to develop a proﬁle of the pre-college and college elective music experiences
and the attitudes toward music of preservice teachers, speciﬁcally focusing on the
similarities and differences between early childhood education majors and music
education majors. The objective for obtaining this information was to provide insight on
how training and attitudes affect the process and content of what preservice early
childhood teachers and music education majors will teach. The researchers stated that the
data obtained from this study would assist the construction of appropriate curricula that
relate more directly to students’ professional needs.

Hair and Smith developed a questionnaire and administered it to early childhood
majors (n=74) and music education majors (n=41). Answers to the questionnaire
provided data for both groups on the amount, type, and level of music training, as well as
the attitudes about and the preferences for music and music teaching. The researchers
analyzed the data in terms of percentages to determine whether any trends, patterns, or

differences occurred between the two groups.

26

Hair and Smith found that early childhood majors and music education majors
had received similar elementary music experiences, with participation in general music
being most common. As elementary education majors moved through their junior and
senior high school years their music participation decreased. These students tended to
elect more general music classes or opt out of music instruction. Conversely, the music
participation of music education majors increased, with the tendency to take choral or
band classes. Pop/rock music was found in the music preferences of both early childhood
education majors and music majors. However, music education majors preferred more
classically-oriented composers and performers than education majors. Only one-third of
the early childhood education majors responded to the question on composers, with more
than half of those students failing to identify a composer. All of the students had positive
attitudes toward music. Most of the students sang along with the radio or television and
acknowledged the importance of music in their lives; however, elementary education
. majors’ attitudes were found to be low for singing in tune and teaching a new song to
children.

Differences in training and preferences between the music majors and non-music
majors were found by Hair and Smith. They also found that most preservice early
childhood educators do not have the depth of musical background to teach music
effectively. Hair and Smith suggest that those developing a college curriculum for
preservice educators should: a) identify information, knowledge, and skills most
necessary for preservice educators, b) develop instructional programs that foster skill
development and positive attitudes, and c) instill the importance of music education in the

curriculum so that preservice educators will provide music instruction for their students.

27

The results of the Hair and Smith study underscore what is known about
developing a curriculum for a methods course. Information, knowledge and skills that are
necessary for preservice elementary educators to teach music need to be identiﬁed in
order to construct a sequential plan for the methods course (Toohey, 2000). Neither the
Hair and Smith study, nor the Gauthier and McCrary study, explore how best to teach
preservice elementary educators the basic knowledge, skills and understandings that are
needed to teach music within the classroom. Recent discussion has pinpointed the need
to approach curricular design from the standpoint of how children develop musically
(Fox, 1993; Gordon, 1997; Scott-Kassner, 1999). A paucity of research exists regarding
how music teacher educators should structure elementary general music methods
course curricula to educate preservice teachers about best practices for teaching music in
terms of desirable musical outcomes for children and for music teaching that is
developmentally appropriate. The present study is concerned with the impact of a
particular methods course design. The curricular design for the course that is the focus of
the present study purposely centers on developmentally appropriate music teaching
practice for prekindergarten through third grade children.

Hair and Smith note that teaching the importance of the classroom teacher to
children’s music education and developing positive attitudes toward music education
should both be considered when constructing a music methods course for non-music
majors. The present study is concerned with preservice educators’ attitude toward music
education; therefore, studies that have been conducted concerning preservice elementary

educators and attitude formation will now be presented.

28

Attitude and Advocacy

The need for developing support for music education and positive attitudes
toward music in the elementary years (Asmus, 1986) led Kritzmire (1991) to investigate
inservice (n=47) and preservice (n=19) elementary educators. These preservice
elementary educators were enrolled in a methods class at the time of the study. Kritzmire
examined both groups’ recollections of their elementary music experiences, their most
memorable music experiences, the attitudes that came about from those experiences, the
involvement of inservice teachers with music in the classroom, and their attitudes toward
music. A four-section questionnaire was used to gather data regarding a) demographics,
b) recalled music participation by grade level, c) current involvement of inservice
teachers with music, and d) anecdotes of the most memorable musical experiences,
whether they be positive or negative.

Both groups reported similarities in their past music instruction, citing group
singing, using a music series book, learning to read notation, and using folk music as the
most common activities. Preservice teachers had experiences with activities from
“newer” approaches, such as using mallet instruments, recorders, and writing notation.
For both groups, there was little involvement with activities of a creative nature. Most
inservice teachers (57%) felt that there was not enough time to teach music within the
school day and felt incompetent to teach music effectively. Kritzmire also found that the
memories of competence or incompetence remained over time and that what was learned
was less important than what was discovered about personal music ability. This ﬁnding
suggests that the effect of a student’s musical past should be attended to as methods

courses and music curricula are designed and implemented.

29

Kritzmire concluded that music instruction and inservice teacher perceptions and
recollections of previous instruction are powerful in forming attitudes toward music and
music teaching. Because attitude formation is enduring (Asmus, 1986), it is important to
attend to the development of positive attitudes within children toward music. Support for
music for children is a likely outcome when music educators build positive attitudes
among their students and the inservice elementary educators in their school district.

This study is related to the current study in that it involves attitude formation and
past musical experience. Kritzmire studied the attitudes of preservice and inservice
teachers’ attitudes toward their past school music experiences and the attitudes of
inservice teachers toward classroom music. The current study is speciﬁcally concerned
with the attitude formation, or possible changes of attitude, of preservice elementary
educators over the course of a semester. While Kritzmire found that attitude formation is
long lasting, possibly stemming from past musical experiences, past musical experience
as a predictor of attitude was not investigated. This study examines whether past musical
experience, in terms of how many years a student has formally studied or been involved
in music, is a predictor of attitude. In addition, it will examine whether past musical
experience, as deﬁned above, is a predictor of comfort levels for teaching speciﬁc
musical activities.

Music Aptitude and Music Self-Concept

Sanders and Browne (1998) believe that music aptitude may have an effect on
music self-concept or an individual’s self-appraisal of his/her abilities. Sanders (2000)
found evidence that a person’s music self-concept may be linked to higher levels of

conﬁdence in teaching music. Sanders examined the relationships of self-concept in

30

music to music background and music aptitude. Eighty-four non-music majors who were
enrolled in various music classes, such as voice class or chorus (N=23), music
appreciation or world music (N=36), or a music skills class (N=25) that served as a pre-
requisite to a non-major music methods course, participated in the study. All subjects
completed the Music Subtest of the Arts Self-Perception Inventory (ASP!) (Vispoel,

1993 ), Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AMMA) (Gordon, 1990), and the Music
Background Questionnaire (MBQ) (Sanders and Browne, 1998) during a two-week
period.

The music subtest of the ASP] contains twelve items, six of which are negatively
phrased, and six of which a positively phrased. All items are to be answered on an eight-
point scale, with responses ranging from “deﬁnitely false” to “deﬁnitely true.” The music
subtest of ASP] had a reliability of .96. AA/ﬂl/IA is a test designed to measure music
aptitude of students at the college level. The 20-minute test consists of 30 recorded pairs
of short phrases. Subjects indicate whether the pairs sound the same, or whether there is a
tonal or rhythm change. Scores are obtained for rhythm, tonal, and total music aptitude.
Test-retest reliability coefficients as reported in the test manual range from .80 for tonal,
.81 for rhythm, to .83 for the total test. The MBQ was designed to gather descriptive
data on subjects’ musical background. Subjects were asked to provide information such
as their age, gender, years of participation in chorus, band/orchestra, or
instrumental/voice lessons.

Eight variables related signiﬁcantly to music self-concept scores. Four of these
variables accounted for 61 percent of the variance as signiﬁcant predictors of music self-

concept: enjoyment of making music, years of band and/or orchestra experience, years of

31

private music lessons, and the phrase “music is important to me.” There was a signiﬁcant
relationship reported between All/014A and the music subtest of the ASP]. That a
relationship was found raises the question of whether a portion of a person’s music self-
concept is determined by one’s potential to learn music. Sanders suggests that music
aptitude may inﬂuence music self-concept and/or an individual’s self-appraisal of his/her
abilities. In conclusion, Sanders calls for additional research to ﬁrrther explore this
relationship.

The study conducted by Sanders points to a signiﬁcant relationship between
music aptitude and music self-concept. In regard to self-concept, Kritzmire (1991) found
that the memories of competence or incompetence remained over time and that what was
discovered about personal music ability was most important. Memories of previous
instruction are powerﬁrl in forming attitudes toward music and music teaching
(Kritzmire, 1991) and attitude formation is enduring (Asmus, 1986).

AMA/b4 as Predictor of Musical Achievemer; of Non-Music Majors

Burton (2001) investigated whether AM is predictive of the music
achievement of college undergraduate non-music majors (n=3 7) enrolled in a music
methods course for preservice elementary educators. Students were ﬁ'om two intact music
methods classes for preservice elementary and early childhood teachers. The class was
one semester in length. The same instructor taught both classes, and both were the same
in content and design. AMI/IA was administered the second week of classes during
regularly scheduled class periods. For the following twelve weeks, students were
speciﬁcally taught short major and minor songs by rote, using a neutral syllable rather

than text. Next, students were taught to audiate, sing, and label the tonic pitch as an

32

indicator of tonality, and to label the tonality. They were also taught short duple and
triple rhythmic chants by rote, using a neutral syllable instead of text. Students learned to
move with continuous ﬂuid movement, as well as to keep the macrobeat with their heals
and pat the microbeat with their hands to feel meter, and to label the meter. After twelve
weeks of instruction, the students were administered a ten-item achievement test that
included ﬁve tonal-related questions and ﬁve meter-related questions. For the tonal
portion of the test, ﬁve original songs that were either in major or minor tonality were
sung to the students. Each song was performed twice. Students were to determine
whether each melody was in major or minor tonality. For the meter portion of the test,
ﬁve original rhythmic chants that were either in duple or triple meter were performed for
the class. Each chant was performed twice. Students were to determine whether each
chant was in duple or triple meter.

Descriptive statistics, including means and standard deviations, were calculated
for AA/ﬂl/IA Tonal, AW Rhythm, and AM Composite tests, as well as for
Achievement-Tonal, Achievement-Meter, and Achievement-Total tests. Split-halves
reliabilities were computed for the AM Tonal, AMI/[A Rhythm, and AW
Composite as well as for the Achievement tests. Regression analysis was performed with
AMI/IA Tonal, Rhythm, and Composite scores as independent variables. Reliabilities for
All/ﬂl/IA were found to be low. Split-halves reliability with Spearman-Brown Prophecy
Formula correction was used to calculate reliabilities. The researcher found reliabilities
to be .22 for AMMA-TonaL .15 for AA/ﬂl/[A-Rhythm, and .43 for AMM-Composite.
Reliabilities for the achievement test also were found to be low. Again, Split-halves

reliability with Spearman-Brown Prophecy Formula correction was used to calculate the

33

reliabilities, which were found to be .23 for the tonal subtest, .18 for the meter subtest,
and .41 for the total test.

Regression analysis was performed with AMA/L4 Tonal, Rhythm, and Composite
test scores as independent variables and achievement tonal, meter and total scores as
dependent variables. In the analysis, AND/1A Tonal, Rhythm, and Composite scores were
not predictive of the achievement test scores, which may be due to the low reliabilities.
Burton concluded that AA/ﬂI/IA may not be a strong predictor of student achievement as
measured through the identiﬁcation of tonality and meter after twelve weeks of
instruction and called for further study.

The relationship between music aptitude and music self-concept is explored in
Sander’s study, and the relationship between music aptitude and music achievement is
explored in the study conducted by Burton. Yet, whether music aptitude acts as a
predictor of attitude and level of comfort has not been investigated. It is possible that a
link may exist between preservice elementary educators’ music aptitudes, attitudes and/or
for teaching certain music activities. The current study will examine whether or not
AA/ﬂl/[A serves as a predictor of students’ attitudes and/or comfort levels for teaching
music.

Comfort Levels and the Methods Cour_se

 

In a pilot study, Hagen (2002) investigated the comfort levels of college
elementary education majors for teaching various subject lessons in the general
elementary classroom following instruction in a required arts class. The arts class was a
combination of art, physical education and music. Prior music experiences and attitudes

were examined for their relationships to those comfort levels. In addition, elementary

34

administrators in districts surrounding the university were surveyed about their
expectations concerning the implementation of general music curricula by elementary
classroom teachers and general music specialists. They were also asked about their
previous music instruction and attitudes. Overall, the administrators were satisﬁed with
music specialists’ music programs. Few administrators expected classroom teachers to
teach music; however many encouraged them to work with the music specialist and to
use music across the curriculum. Preservice elementary educators were not as
comfortable teaching music as other core subjects. Those who were comfortable teaching
one music activity tended to be more comfortable teaching all of them. Years of
experience in a high school performing group and private lessons were predictive of
higher comfort levels with singing and multicultural activities. The researcher concluded
that, if subjects were comfortable with singing, enjoyed making music, and valued music
in their lives, they would be more likely to feel more comfortable using music activities
in their classrooms.

There are similarities with Hagen’s study and the current one. Hagen (2002)
investigated preservice educators’ comfort levels for teaching within the context of a
classroom setting and sought insight from administrators in addition to obtaining
information on music background and attitudes from preservice elementary educators.
This study explores change in comfort levels within the context of a methods course. In
addition, it uses music background information as a possible predictor of attitude and
comfort levels, as well as investigates whether attitude changes over the course of a
semester. Hagen’s study explores possible predictors of comfort levels, as does the

current study. This study will also explore the response of students to instructional

35

strategies in terms of attitude and comfort level.
Attitude and the Methods Course

Lewis (1991) sought to determine whether preservice elementary educators’
attitudes toward their ability to teach music and toward the value of music for children
changed as a result of a semester-long music methods course. Subjects for the study were
114 junior and senior students enrolled in an elective three-credit music methods course
at a Midwestern university. The text that was used included music ﬁrndamentals and
methods for teaching music. The course also included instruction in playing autoharp,
recorder, and piano.

A twenty-seven item Likert-type survey was used to measure the degree of
importance students placed on music study (items 1-23) and the level of comfort they felt
in directing various types of music activities (items 24-27). The music attitude and music
experience portion of the survey was adapted from the work of Baltzer, Bondurant-
Koehler, & Koehler (1987), and the level of comfort items were adapted from Amen
(1982). A pilot test of the survey yielded test-retest reliability coefﬁcients of .93 for
attitude and .98 for level of comfort (n=26). Qualitative information regarding the
preservice elementary educator’s musical backgrounds was also requested. The survey
was administered on the ﬁrst and last days of class.

Lewis examined differences between the pre-and posttest means for attitude
toward music and belief in its importance. The researcher used paired comparison t-
tests. Fifteen items yielded signiﬁcant differences, indicating a deﬁnite shift in attitude
over the course of a semester. Only three items resulted in non-signiﬁcance. All of the

comfort level items were signiﬁcant demonstrating that students felt more comfortable

36

taking part in classroom activities of singing, playing music games, listening, and
discussing musical concepts after a semester of music methods class. Lewis also
examined the relationships between previous music experience and attitudes toward
music and music education, and the relationship between comfort levels for teaching
music and attitudes toward teaching music. Results showed a signiﬁcant relationship
between experience and eight (2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 18, 23 ) of the survey items (see
Appendix D). Those eight items were related to greater academic success of music
students and the importance of educational programs that emphasize the development of
positive attitudes. Comfort was signiﬁcantly related with 13 (2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19,
20, 21, 22, 23) of the survey items (see Appendix D); the strongest relationships were
level of comfort with the desire to teach music and the consideration of music as a basic
subject in the curriculum. Total music experience and total comfort level were
signiﬁcantly related. The researcher ﬁrrther examined the effects of total music
experience and total comfort on survey items. Lewis performed median splits for total
music experience and total comfort and then analyzed the data using one-way ANOVAs.
Survey items served as criterion variables, with comfort and experience serving as
independent variables. The majority of the one-way analyses were non-signiﬁcant.
Lewis found that, at the end of a semester, students enrolled in the music methods
course for non-majors perceived themselves to be more proﬁcient in teaching certain
music activities, and they recognized the need for music specialists and the need for the
supportive role of the classroom teacher in music instruction. In addition, she states that
there was greater agreement at the end of the semester with these particular statements: a)

“Every school should have a music specialist,” b) “Music should be considered a basic,

37

or core subject,” c) “Appreciating music depends on knowing a great deal about it,” d)
“The classroom teacher should spend time on music,” and e) “I would like to teach music
in my own classroom.” A primary conclusion from this study was that inservice
elementary educators who feel comfortable directing music activities with children are
more likely to teach music than persons with musical experience who lack teaching
ability. Lewis discloses at the end of the study that the students in the course had elected
to take the course and recommends that the study be replicated with students who are
required to take a music methods course.

These studies are related to the present study in that they concern preservice
elementary education teachers who are enrolled in a music methods course for non-music
majors. In the study conducted by Lewis, there was an overall change of attitude and
level of comfort of the students enrolled in a music methods course. Yet, questions
remain regarding when, what, how, or why the change occurred. Although a signiﬁcant
relationship between music self-concept and music aptitude was found by Sanders
(2000), there appears to be no information about whether preservice elementary
educators’ music aptitudes might be predictive of attitude and/or level of comfort.
Kritzmire found that the perceptions and recollections of past music instruction bear on
the attitudes of preservice teachers toward music and teaching music (Kritzmire, 1991).
Yet, Kritzmire did not explore whether these perceptions and recollections are predictive
of attitude and level of comfort. There are studies that investigate the extent to which how
music is used by classroom teachers in the elementary grades (Byo, 1999; Kelly, 1999;
Saunders & Baker, 1991). In addition, the research of Gauthier & McCrary (1999) has

provided an outline of the content that is currently being taught by methods instructors.

38

However, research that reveals the voice of preservice elementary educators regarding
instructional strategies and assignments is needed and may be valuable in interpreting
attitude and comfort levels. The literature is scant, if not non-existent, regarding these
questions. Perhaps examining these questions will provide insight for improving
instruction in the music methods course designed for preservice elementary educators.
Summm

A consensus exists among music methods teachers regarding the content and
purpose of music methods courses for preservice elementary educators. Most methods
courses emphasize teaching methodology, song leading skills, age-appropriate music
concepts, child development, lesson plan development, peer teaching, and development
of the child’s singing voice. Typically, music methods teachers’ curricular decisions are
inﬂuenced by their philosophy, amount of teaching experience, their students’
backgrounds, state and institutional requirements, and current trends in education.

Preservice elementary teachers often have insufﬁcient music backgrounds to
teach music. Their self-appraisal of musicianship has been formed through their
perceptions and recollections of past music instruction and music aptitude. These
perceptions and recollections of past music instruction bear on their attitudes toward
music and teaching music. Preservice elementary teachers have been found not to be as
comfortable teaching music as they are teaching other core subjects. Therefore, methods
instructors should ﬁrst identify the information, knowledge, and skills needed to
effectively teach music, develop instructional programs to foster skill development,
positive attitudes, and comfort for teaching musical activities, as well as instill the

importance of music education when constructing the music methods curriculum. From

39

engaging in this type of curricula, preservice elementary educators may develop positive
attitudes toward music and music teaching. Also, they may perceive themselves to be
more proﬁcient in, and feel more comfortable with, teaching music activities.
Furthermore, they may recognize the need for music specialists, and the need for the
classroom teacher to be supportive of the music program. However, what has not been
determined from this review of research is the actual context from which preservice
elementary educators’ attitudes and comfort levels toward music and music teaching are

formed.

40

Chapter III
Methodology
Semg of the Stug
This study took place at a mid-sized public university located in a mid-
westem state of the United States. This university is located within a metropolitan area.
The student body primarily is comprised of traditional, college-aged students and is
racially and socio-economically diverse. The majority of students live off-campus and
commute to the university for classes.
The Participants
Participants in the study were ﬁfteen early childhood education majors enrolled in
the third section of a required early childhood/elementary music methods course taught
by the researcher. The class met twice weekly for 50 minutes from 5:10 PM to 6:00 PM.
All of the students would be applying for state licensure to teach pre-kindergarten
through third grade. This licensure also includes teaching music. All of the students were
Caucasian, with fourteen of the students being females, and one male, which constituted a
typical representation of the population of preservice early childhood educators
(Harwood, 1993). Of the fourteen females, four were of senior standing, six were of
junior standing, and four were of sophomore standing. The male was of junior standing.
Approval of this study was granted by the University Committee on Research Involving
Human Subjects at Michigan State University (see Appendix A). Consent forms were
presented for the students to read and consider whether they wished to participate in the
study (see Appendix B). All students elected to participate in the study, understanding

that participation was not obligatory and did not aﬂ’ect their course grade.

41

The Teacher-Researcher

The nature of a course is largely determined by the professor who designs and
implements it. In addition, the professor of the course monitors and adjusts the course
according to class needs. Teacher-based inquiry from a moderate interpretive perspective
is the foundation for this research. An important instrument in this type of inquiry is the
teacher-researcher (Elliott, 2002). In this investigation, the central points of inquiry are
the teacher-researcher’s instructional practices and curricular design, and the attitudes,
comfort levels and reactions of the students who are enrolled in the course. The teacher-
researcher was a 37-year-old Caucasian female in her second year as a ﬁrll—time visiting
assistant professor of music education at the university. At the time of the study, she had
taught general music methods classes for music education majors and non-music majors
for more than four years. In addition, the teacher-researcher had prior experience with
teacher education through the supervision of general music education and choral music
education student teachers. The teacher-researcher had extensive experience teaching
children, with more than twelve years of experience teaching elementary general music
and eight years of teaching early childhood music to children ﬁ'om birth to age ﬁve. She
had assisted inservice elementary general music educators with curricular development
and implementation, as well as inservice elementary educators with the implementation
of music in the classroom. The teacher-researcher also had additional music education
experience with children who have severe mental and physical handicaps. She had also
taught piano to students of all ages and was an accompanist.

The Methods Course

The course that the preservice early childhood education majors were enrolled in

42

was a required, 2-credit hour class that met a total of 16 weeks. It was designed with the
overriding goals of developing the musicianship of the preservice education students,
developing their ability, and comfort for teaching music in an age-appropriate, sequential
and musically sound manner, and creating lesson plans that integrated music in an
appropriate pedagogical manner. Each week of the course was theme-related, including
such themes as: musical development of the child, informal music guidance, singing and
chanting, choosing appropriate songs and chants, the National Standards, Laban
movement, choosing appropriate listening selections, listening activities, individualizing
instruction, incorporating instruments, formal movement, and integrating music within
the classroom (see Appendix C for course syllabus). Course content was presented
through lecture, and students participated in demonstration classes in which the instructor
modeled instructional strategies. These demonstration classes were provided so that the
students had the opportunity to be taught similar to the way in which young children are
taught. Skills sessions were led by the teacher-researcher to develop the preservice
educators’ level of musicianship. These sessions speciﬁcally focused on development of
audiation, beat competency, meter and tonality identiﬁcation, and the development of the
singing voice.

The related research indicates that it is not known how course purposes were
achieved, nor what instructional strategies were used to deliver content. Jeanneret (1997)
found that demonstration, modeling, and student participation had a positive effect on
conﬁdence to teach music of students enrolled in a fundamentals course. Jeanneret also
concluded that the complex interaction of demonstration, modeling, and student

participation needs more examination in the music methods course for preservice

43

teachers. When using informal guidancel techniques with children, content is primarily
delivered through modeling and demonstration, and children are active participants. If
this is the case, it then follows that if a course goal is for preservice elementary educators
to teach music in a developmentally appropriate, sequential manner, and if comfort to
teach musical activities is an emphasis of the methods course, then the instructional
strategies of demonstration, modeling, and peer teaching should be used.

Peer Teaching

Peer teaching was an integral part of the class and was based upon class
assignments. Peer teaching activities included the teaching of songs, chants, movement
activities, and listening lessons and were either conducted in front of the class or
within a small group. For the peer teaching of songs and chants, small groups were
typically used to lessen the fear and anxiety that students may feel regarding singing or
performing in front of others. Students also developed an informal guidance music lesson
plan, and a lesson plan that integrated a classroom subject with musical concepts and/or
skills that they peer taught to the class.

Peer teaching was an instructional strategy mentioned in the Gauthier and
McCrary (1999) study. How instructors implemented peer teaching, and the purposes for
using it is not known. In this study, peer teaching was used as a means for students to
gain practice in content delivery, and make connections between lecture, demonstration,
modeling and observation. In addition this technique was used in small groups,
speciﬁcally so that students did not have to sing in front of the class, a common fear

among preservice elementary educators.

 

' In informal guidance, children are exposed to music and are encouraged to respond naturally and
spontaneously (Gordon, 1997).

44

Aﬂgnments

There were several additional assignments that were completed outside of class.
These assignments were not found in any of the related literature, because the related
literature did not address speciﬁc assignments, content delivery strategies, or other
instructional techniques. One outside assignment was for the students to submit ten
electronic mail journal entries. These entries were to be used as a dialogue between the
teacher-researcher and the students regarding aspects of the course that the students
wished to comment on or ask questions about. In addition, the journals were a means to
collect qualitative data regarding students’ reactions to the course for the present study.
The use of an electronic e-mail journal had been found by the teacher-researcher to be
valuable for her instructional purposes, as they allow students to ask questions and/or
make remarks regarding the course.

Another assignment was for the students to complete three hours of elementary
classroom music instruction observation. To that end, the teacher-researcher initiated a
practicum experience with the kindergarten class of the university childcare center.
Students were able to observe the teacher-researcher teaching the kindergarten students
as part of their observations, or observe other elementary music classroom settings.
Including observations of elementary music classes appears to have been meaningful to
preservice educators in past courses taught by the teacher-researcher. Generally,
preservice elementary educators are not familiar with how an elementary music
classroom ﬁrnctions. The observations help students to form connections between
what is being learned in the course and what is being put into practice in the ﬁeld.

Students were also required to keep a portfolio of class notes, lesson plans, hand-

45

outs, activities, observation write-ups, and a bank of songs and chants. The portfolio
assignment is intended to assist the preservice teachers with putting together a resource
for their future classroom. For the bank of songs and chants, students were asked to ﬁnd
ten songs and ﬁve chants, provide a copy of each selection, list the tonality, meter,
composer, vocal range, origin of the music, possible musical skills that could be taught
through the song or chant, and identify how the music might be integrated into the
content of an elementary classroom. For this assignment, students applied what they had
learned in the prerequisite theory course, determined appropriate ways to teach the
musical content, and included how the selections could be integrated with other subject
matter.

For the midterm and ﬁnal exams, students were assigned to groups of four or ﬁve
to create possible exam questions. These questions served, in addition to the teacher-
researcher’s review questions, as a test review and were often incorporated within the
actual exam. The teacher-researcher believes that this is a valuable assignment, because
working in small groups was a catalyst for discussion of the material and class notes prior
to the class review, strengthening the preservice educators’ understanding of the
material learned in class.

The Text

The primary text used for the course was Music Play (1998) by Valerio,
Reynolds, Bolton, Taggart, & Gordon, a preparatory audiation-based text grounded in
Gordon’s music learning theory. The text contains research-based information on the
musical development of children that is appropriate for the level of musical

understanding typical of preservice or inservice generalist teachers. In addition, the book

46

includes songs and chants, with and without words, in a variety of tonalities and meters,
and many developmentally appropriate musical activities. An accompanying CD is
provided to enable those who cannot read music to learn the repertoire contained in the
text. Also, a variety of basal series music books from the university’s collection were
used as secondary teaching resources. The choice of Music Play as the course text is a
reﬂection of the teacher-researcher’s theoretical underpinnings of Gordon’s music
learning theory (Gordon, 1997). After having many years of experience putting music
learning theory into practice and three years of using the text in similar courses for non-
music majors, the teacher-researcher has found that this text functions well as a guide for
music teaching practice in a manner corresponding to how children learn music
developmentally.
Design of the Study

The design of the study stemmed from both quantitative and qualitative
paradigms. Quantitative data were obtained regarding attitude, level of comfort, and
music aptitude and were analyzed using quantitative techniques. Descriptive data
regarding the students’ reactions to the course were collected and analyzed using
qualitative data analysis techniques. The researcher believed that using both methods for
data collection would create a more complete construction of reality, and that the two
means of data collection would complement each other and strengthen the overall
credibility of ﬁndings. By using both of these types of data collection and analyses
together in a complementary fashion, rather than using one method of data collection and

analysis, a study that is more in—depth and richer in description should result.

47

Mollecﬁon Procedures

Journals

Data were collected as a natural, ongoing part of the course taught by the teacher—
researcher. A primary means of data collection was through the submission of weekly
reﬂections on the course by individual students through journal entries that were
submitted by e-mail. For all but one journal entry, the teacher-researcher did not specify a
topic for reﬂection, as the teacher-researcher was interested in obtaining the students’
unbiased reﬂections. The teacher-researcher also maintained a weekly reﬂective journal
regarding her perceptions of the class and other anecdotal information. So that the student
journals did not bias the journal writing of the teacher-researcher, the teacher-researcher
did not read the weekly student journals until after she had completed her own
submission for the week. However, it was the researcher’s opinion that the student
journals should be read as the course progressed, as information provided within them

was of value to guide the direction of the course throughout the semester.

Quantitative and Qualitative Data Collection

 

Quantitative data for the research questions pertaining to whether there was a
change in students’ attitudes and/or comfort levels regarding teaching music were
collected through a questionnaire administered at the beginning of the semester and then
again administered at the end of the semester. Qualitative data were gathered from
students’ journal submissions, the course syllabus, and lesson plans to examine the
research question of how curricular implementation and design might impact the
attitudes and comfort levels of students in the course. In addition, qualitative data from

student journals, the teacher-researcher’s journal, course syllabus, and lesson plans were

48

used to address the research questions of how students respond to various instructional
strategies and assignments, and what aspects of the course students perceived to be
relevant or irrelevant for their ﬁrture professional use.

Information on whether the self-rating of musical ability, self-rating of musical
ability as compared to peers in the course, past music experience in an ensemble or
formal instruction ﬁrnction as predictors of student attitudes or comfort levels, was
obtained from a questionnaire. The Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AIIM)
(Gordon, 1991) was used to measure students’ tonal and rhythm music aptitudes in
order to address the question of whether music aptitude ﬁrnctions as a predictor of student
attitudes or comfort levels in regard to music instruction.

Criterion Measures
Attitude and Level of Comfort OuestionnLre

To measure students’ attitude regarding music instruction, level of comfort for
teaching music, self-rating of musical ability, and prior musical experience, a
questionnaire was adapted by the researcher and administered at the beginning and end of
the semester (see Appendix D). The attitude portion of the questionnaire was an
adaptation of a questionnaire of Lewis (1999), who adapted hers from Baltzer, Koehler,
& Bondurant-Koehler (1987). There were three sections to the questionnaire. The ﬁrst
section of 26 items was designed to elicit information regarding attitude toward music
instruction based on a 5-point Likert scale. Students circled the number that best ﬁt their
response from a range of one point for “strongly disagree” to ﬁve points for “strongly
agree.”

Of the 26 questions, three were added by the researcher. These items addressed

49

the useﬁrlness of ﬁrndamentals classes, usefulness of understanding children’s musical
development, and usefulness of knowing how to individualize instruction. The areas of
musical development and individualization of instruction are typically addressed within
the paradigm of Gordon’s music learning theory. Therefore it is logical to question
whether students believed learning about the musical development of children and how to
individualize instruction for children to be useful. Because many institutions require a
music fundamentals course of preservice elementary educators as prerequisite to the
methods course, it was logical to seek out the students’ opinions of how useﬁrl
fundamentals courses were to their musical study.

The second section of the questionnaire was also adapted ﬁ'om Lewis (1999), who
adapted four items from Amen (1982). This section of the questionnaire was designed to
elicit information on the comfort level of students for teaching various musical activities.
There were eight level of comfort questions with a corresponding ﬁve-point Likert
scale. Students circled the number that best ﬁt their response ﬁ'om a range of one point
for “very uncomfortable” to ﬁve points for “very comfortable.” Because the teacher-
researcher felt that more information should be obtained regarding student comfort levels
for teaching music activities in addition to the items regarding singing with children,
conducting a listening lesson, playing musical games and discussing musical concepts,
she added four items to this part of the questionnaire, for a total of eight questions. These
items concerned students’ level of comfort for teaching movement activities, using
rhythm instruments, using musically-creative activities, and teaching music within their
own classrooms.

The third section of the questionnaire concerned the self-rating of level of

50

musicianship as an individual and level of musicianship as compared to peers. A ﬁve-
point Likert scale was used for students’ response with a range of one point for “poor”
to ﬁve points for “excellent.” Answers for years in a musical ensemble and the type of
ensemble, as well as years of formal lessons and the type of lessons, were provided as a
short answer response.

Advanced Measures 01 Music A udiation (AM)

To measure music aptitude, Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AA/HIM)
(Gordon, 1989) was used. AMI/IA is a standardized test of music aptitude for high school
and college-aged students. AMI/1A is recorded on a compact disc, which includes
instructions for taking the test, 30 pairs of musical phrases, and practice examples. Test
examples are performed on a synthesizer. The test takes approximately 20 minutes to
administer. The AMI/1A has two subtests: rhythm and tonal. Students are required to ﬁll a
space on the answer sheet indicating whether a pair of musical phrases sounds the same,
sounds different because of a tonal change, or sounds different because of a rhythm
change. A tonal score, a rhythm score, and a composite score is obtained for each student.
Norms are provided for high school students, music majors, and non-music majors for
test scores on the tonal and rhythm subtests, as well as for the total test. Split-halves
reliabilities for non-music majors are reported in the test manual as .80 for both tonal and
rhythm subtests and .81 for the total test.

Gordon does not report validity coefﬁcients in the test manual, because valid
criterion measures had not been established to investigate the objective validity at
the time the test was published. However, there have been several subsequent studies

conducted on the useﬁrlness of AMMA as a measure of predictive validity. Burton (2000)

51

investigated the use of All/[MA as a predictor of undergraduate non-music majors’ music
achievement. AA/ﬂl/IA was administered the second week of classes, and an achievement
test requiring students to identify tonality as major or minor and meter as duple or triple
was administered at the end of the semester. Burton found reliability coefﬁcients to be
low, calling into question the use of AA/ﬂl/IA as a predictor of undergraduate non-music
majors musical achievement. Burton suggested replication of this study due to the short
length of the achievement test, resulting in low reliabilities.

Gordon (1990), in a study of undergraduate and graduate music majors (n=114),
concluded that the music performance achievement of undergraduate and graduate music
majors may be predicted by AA/ﬂl/IA with 67% of the variance in common. A predictive
validity coefficient of .82 was reported.

Schleuter (1993) investigated the predictive validity of AMI/IA with music
achievement and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores. Music achievement data
consisted of sightsinging and dictation scores. He found that there was no signiﬁcant
relationship between AA/ﬂl/IA and SAT scores. However, AA/ﬂl/LA Tonal scores correlated
signiﬁcantly with dictation, and with combined dictation and sightsinging scores.
Additionally, AA/ﬂl/IA Rhythm and Total scores correlated signiﬁcantly with sightsinging,
dictation, and combined sightsinging and dictation scores. Schleuter concluded that
AA/ﬂl/[A total scores predicted sightsinging and dictation total scores with 21% of
variance in common.

One of the purposes of AMI/IA, as stated in the test manual, is to be used to
establish realistic expectations for music achievement among music majors and non-

music majors. Of the studies presented here, two have established levels of predictive

52

validity of AA/ﬂl/IA for music achievement, and both of these studies used music majors as
subjects. That Burton (2000) found reliabilities to be low calls into question the
useﬁrlness of All/ﬂl/IA as a measure of music aptitude for non-music majors. However,
there is no other published music aptitude test for use with a population such as the one
under investigation. While caution is warranted about results from this measure, there
may exist practical value in All/HIM test scores. In this study, AMMA was used to
determine whether music aptitude functions as a predictor of preservice elementary
educators’ attitudes and comfort levels for music and music teaching.
Data Analysis

Attitude and Level of Comfort Questionm

The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection
and analysis. For the research questions relating to changes in attitude and comfort for
music and teaching music, paired comparison t-tests were performed on questionnaire
items to examine differences between pre— and posttest means for attitude and level of
comfort.
Student Response to the Course

To explore students’ response to instructional strategies and assignments and what
aspects of the course that students felt were especially relevant or irrelevant, student
journals, the journal of the teacher-researcher, and course documents were analyzed
through content analysis. Data were coded and categorized according to emerging trends
relating to the above research questions, as well as any additional trends that emerged.
Triangplation of Sources

Demonstration of the validity of the ﬁndings from data obtained through

53

qualitative methods was by triangulation of sources. Triangulation of sources is a form of
comparative analysis and involves checking for consistency among qualitative data
obtained from different sources (Patton, 1990). In this study, qualitative data were
obtained from student journals, the teacher-researcher journal, and course documents.
These data sources were compared to each other to check the level of consistency of
ﬁndings ﬁ'om the content analysis procedure.

Predictors of Attitudﬂnd Level of Comfort

Multiple regression analysis was used to determine whether music aptitude
functioned as a predictor of attitude or level of comfort at the beginning or at the end of
the semester. Pretest questionnaire items ﬁrnctioned as dependent variables and AA/ﬂl/IA-
Tonal and AA/ﬂl/lA-Rhythm scores functioned as independent variables. Multiple
regression analysis was also performed using posttest questionnaire items as dependent
variables with AA/ﬂl/lA-Tonal and AM/[A-Rhythm scores as independent variables.

To determine whether self-rating of musical ability, self-rating of musical ability
as compared to peers in the course, students’ past experience in formal lessons, and past
music experience in an ensemble function as predictors of attitude or level of comfort at
the beginning or end of the semester, multiple regression analysis was performed. Pretest
questionnaire items ﬁrnctioned as dependent variables, and self-rating of musical ability,
self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course, students’ past experience
in formal lessons, and past music experience in an ensemble functioned as independent
variables. Multiple regression analysis was also performed with pretest to posttest
questionnaire item gains scores functioning as dependent variables and self-rating of

musical ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course, students’

54

past experience in formal lessons, and past music experience in an ensemble functioning
as independent variables.
Triangulation of Methods

Validity of the ﬁndings as a result of the methods used in data collection is
addressed through triangulation of methods. Triangulation of methods involves
determining the consistency of ﬁndings as evidenced through different methods of data
collection (Patton, 1990). This study was conducted ﬁ'om a moderate interpretive
perspective; therefore data were obtained through both quantitative and qualitative
means. Quantitative methods of data collection included: a) questionnaire on attitude,
comfort level, self-rating of musical ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to
peers in the course, past music experience in an ensemble, or formal instruction, and b)
Advanced Measures of Music Audiation. Qualitative methods of data collection included:
a) student journals, b) teacher-researcher journal, and c) course documents.

Triangulation of methods involved checking the consistency of ﬁndings through
the comparison of the data. To address the consistency of ﬁndings concerning the impact
the course curriculum and design had on student attitudes and comfort levels, how
students responded to instructional strategies or assignments, and whether there were
aspects of the course students felt to be relevant or irrelevant to their professional use
(research questions one and two), pretest and posttest questionnaire data were compared
to the data obtained from student journals, the journal of the teacher-researcher, and
course documents. To address the consistency of ﬁndings concerning whether any change
occurred in student attitudes and comfort levels for music and music teaching, and the

impact of the course design and curriculum on attitude and level of comfort (research

55

 

questions three, four, and ﬁve), data were compared between the pre-test and post-test

questionnaires and student journals.

56

 

Chapter IV
Results and Interpretation of Data
Introduction

This research study is concerned with improving instruction in music methods
courses for preservice elementary classroom teachers. More speciﬁcally, this study
explored whether a particular curricular design and implementation had an impact on
preservice elementary educators’ attitudes or comfort levels for teaching music.
Moreover, preservice elementary educators’ responses to instructional strategies and
assignments were examined. In addition, this study investigated whether preservice
elementary educators’ attitudes and comfort levels for teaching music changed over the
course of a semester. Finally, this study investigated whether music aptitude, self-rating
of musical ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course, or
past music experience in an ensemble or in formal instruction function as predictors of
preservice elementary educators’ attitudes or comfort levels.

In this chapter, the data, results, and interpretations of the study are presented in
relation to the research questions and the type of data yielded. First, those research
questions that yielded qualitative data will be presented, followed by those research
questions that yielded quantitative data. Examples of data triangulation and methods

triangulation will be included when instances of triangulation occurred.

Analysis of Student Journals, Teacher-Researcher} Journal and Course Documents

 

Limitations of Journal Data Collection
As an ongoing aspect of the course, the teacher-researcher assigned students to

submit weekly journal entries by e-mail. Out of the 15-week semester, a total of 11 weeks

57

of journal entries were collected from the class. Not every student submitted a journal
entry for each week, even though they were assigned. The mean for journal entries was
12.6 submissions per week from a total of 15 students. Outside circumstances beyond the
teacher-researcher’s control occurred during two weeks of instruction and prohibited the
writing and collecting of journal submissions from the students. Classes were canceled
one week due to an unexpected campus visit by President George Bush and Mexican
President Vincente Fox. The following week, classes were canceled due to the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U. S. Also, when creating the syllabus, the teacher-
researcher had decided not to collect journal entries for the week of the midterm exam,
nor the week of the ﬁnal exam.

There were no speciﬁc topics that students were to address in their journal entries,
with one exception. It is customary practice by the teacher-researcher to elicit feedback
from students as to how they feel they are doing in the class and what improvements
might be made in the class regarding instruction and assignments. Journal entry nine was
used for that purpose.

Content Analysis of JoumAEntriaa

Content analysis of the student journals, the teacher-researcher’s journal, and
course documents occurred before any of the quantitative analyses were performed. The
teacher-researcher’s rationale for this was to limit the possibility of the results of the
quantitative analyses inﬂuencing the analysis of the journals and course documents.

To begin the analysis process, the teacher-researcher grouped the journals by
week and tallied the total number of journal entries for each week. The teacher-researcher

read through all of the student journals, her journal, and course documents. Next, she

58

 

coded individual journals, as well as her own, from each week. Categories and sub-
categories emerged through constant comparison of student journal entries as grouped by
week. These categories were further compared to the categories that emerged ﬁom the
teacher-researcher’s journal. The categories and sub-categories were then compared to
the course documents and analyzed in reference to the research questions of the study.
Only those themes that occurred in one—third, or higher of the responses ﬁ'om the total
number of journal entries are included in the results below. Following are the research
questions and resulting analyses for each problem:

Basaagch Question One: Does amiculacourse curriculum design and implementation
have an impact on the ﬁtitudes and comfort levels of preservice elementary educators
enrolled in an elementary music methods course for non-music majors?

Looking Toward the Future

At the beginning of the course, the teacher-researcher was concerned whether
students would take the course seriously and ﬁnd the material and activities interesting,
worthwhile, and relevant for their ﬁrture use. When students began the course, most
were already visualizing themselves as elementary educators, were looking forward to
taking the course, and had a positive attitude. Eleven students articulated anticipation of
being an inservice elementary teacher and their hope that this course would serve them in
the ﬁrture. One student, Rachel, summarized the overall class sentiment with this excerpt
taken ﬁom her journal entry, dated September 3, 2001 “I was glad to hear that we are
actually going to learn how to teach music in our classroom instead of just learning about

music all over again. I hope to learn things that I can keep with me for my future

endeavors with my teaching career.”

59

Musical Develcgiment

There was interest in learning about the musical development of children and
many students were surprised to learn that music is learned in developmental stages. In
prior courses taught by the teacher-researcher, preservice elementary educators are often
interested in learning activities that they can use as professionals for non-musical
purposes, such as to serve another aspect of the curriculum, to “break up the day,” to
transition children from one activity to another, or for “circle time” activities. That the
students were interested in musical development and believed that music is important in
the lives of children was encouraging to the teacher-researcher. It may be that, because
child-development is stressed throughout these students’ undergraduate preservice
education, learning about musical development is perceived as a natural part of a methods
curriculum. In support of this, analysis of the questionnaire displayed a statistically
signiﬁcant change in attitude showing greater agreement with the belief that the
classroom teacher should be aware of how children develop musically, and that knowing
how to teach children who are at different musical developmental levels is important.
Fear of Singing

Students felt a great deal of concern about displaying musical skill, particularly
singing. They felt comfortable sharing their concern at the beginning of the semester
with such comments as, “I am a horrible singer,” ..I can’t carry a tune, ” and “. . .I’m not
too good with music.” These remarks stemmed ﬁ'om feelings of inadequacy regarding
musical ability. Austin (2000) found that negative perception of ability and failure
attributes are common with non-music majors and states that teacher educators should

counter the negative self-images and ability perceptions and reduce the number of

60

opportunities for students to fail. This was reﬂected in the results of this study. The
assignment of peer teaching a song and chant brought about concern and fear of
performing in front of others among the students. The teacher-researcher, anticipating
and acknowledging this fear, structured the peer teaching session so that students could
experience as much success and comfort as possible. Students chose their own small
groups and were graded on a pass/fail basis. After the peer teaching assignment, students
found that it was not as difficult as they had thought and, to the teacher-researcher’s
surprise, indicating that they enjoyed the peer teaching session after it was over. Debby
shared her feelings in her journal entry dated October 3, 2001, which reﬂected her
understanding of the purpose of the assignment and the feelings of the class. “What an
unstressful and enjoyable event. It was no where near as scary as I thought it was going to
be. I enjoyed doing this activity because it helped me gain a better understanding not only
of what we were supposed to do, but also that doing these types of things with the
children are really beneﬁcial to them.” In support of this, the analysis of the level of
comfort portion of the questionnaire showed that students’ level of comfort for singing to
or with children increased signiﬁcantly over the course of the semester.
Peer Teaching

Peer teaching was an important aspect of the course. The teacher-researcher had
students create many of their assignments and then teach them to the class. There was an
overwhelmingly positive response to peer teaching movement activities. The students
were enthusiastic about sharing their created movement activities and appreciated the
opportunity to do so. Students’ remarks reﬂected their positive attitudes for this

assignment. In her journal entry dated October 4, 2001, Kris related, “I really enjoyed the

61

creative movement activities we did today in class. It was interesting to see what the
others came up with. . .I am glad that we got copies of the other activities people did.”
Cindy said in her journal entry from October 8, 2001, “I had a wonderﬁrl time on
thursday [sic] presenting and performing the different movement activities. They were
all great and extremely creative which has given me many ideas to go from for the
ﬁrture.”

In addition to the movement peer teaching, the preservice educators had a positive
response to teaching formal dance and to the culminating activity of the semester. The
course ended with the class learning a song, playing an accompaniment on barred and
rhythm instruments, and performing a dance they had created in small groups. They then
peer-taught the dance that they had created. On December 3, 2001, the teacher-researcher
remarked in her journal entry that “I hope this enthusiasm for teaching and using music in
the classroom will carry over into their professional careers.” As found in the
questionnaire analysis, students’ level of comfort for teaching music had signiﬁcantly
increased by the end of the semester. In addition, there .was a high level of agreement for
the statement, “I would like to teach music in my own classroom.” It is more likely that
students with a higher level of comfort for teaching music activities will actually use
them @ewis, 1991). To a large extent this change in comfort level and attitude appears to
be the result of peer teaching.

Response to AM

As part of the ongoing discussion of musical development, the teacher-researcher

presented information. on music aptitude and music aptitude testing. It was at this time

that students took AAM. Their response to AAM clearly reﬂected ﬁustration. On

62

October 15, 2001 Carol wrote in her journal “I had no clue on that music aptitude
test we took this past Thursday.” Carol’s feelings were reinforced by Diane in her journal
entry dated October 17, 2001, “I just wanted to comment on the test we took last week,
HORRIBLE!” Lynn’s journal entry from October 17, 2001 captured the overall opinion
of the class, “The music aptitude test on Thursday was more of a challenge than I
expected it to be. I was very irritated while testing because of the difﬁculty.” These
responses may have been due to the fact that All/014A is an aptitude test, and not an
achievement test, from which students may expect to have a sense of accomplishment.
The teacher-researcher noted in her journal from the week of October 22, 2001,
“Thursday--they took AWA. Oh brother! They were drained at the end of it. Their faces
showed ﬁ'ustration, probably due to the audiational demands of the test. I have told them
that if they REALLY want to know their scores, I’ll let them know. Otherwise I think it
would be best to wait until the end of the semester. I don’t want the students to be
discouraged by their test results.” She further expressed concern about whether the test
might be detrimental to the musical self-perception of some students. The reliabilities of
both All/0m! subtests were moderate, but the overwhelming negative student response
raises questions about its use in such a course.
Usefulnesa of the Course

When asked to evaluate the course, the teaching of the teacher-researcher, and
their own progress at the mid-point of the semester, the majority of the students asserted
that they felt they were doing well, were learning a lot, and were enjoying the class. A
general consensus was that the course was enjoyable and practical. Students mentioned

that the class was a pleasant change from the typical, required courses. Liz stated in her

63

journal entry ﬁom November 5, 2001, “I am actually learning stuff that I will use in my
classroom in the ﬁrture. I like your teaching style: learning by doing. The projects we do
for our assignments will help me when I go to do something in my classroom.” Lynn
noted in her journal dated November 5, 2001, “I really enjoy coming to this class. It is a
nice break from all of my cohort classes and we do things that I’ll be able to use in a
classroom someday.”
Structure of the Course

Students did mention being “stressed” at the end of the semester due to having
notebooks that included an integrated lesson plan, the song and chant bank, and
observation reports to turn in. Cindy summed up her feelings in her journal entry from
December 2, 2001, “Okay, I am getting a little stressed having the Lesson Plan due and
our Notebooks due on Thursday. Let me tell you this is not a good time to be a
pacrastinator(?) [sic]. AAHHHH! ! I l 1” Lynn remarked on December 2, 2001, that the end
of the semester is . .very exciting, yet overwhelming,” and that she had her notebook
almost completed but hadn’t started her lesson plan that was due in three days. In support
of this, a week prior to these remarks, the teacher-researcher noted in her journal entry
ﬁ'om November 26, 2001 that, “the students have a lot to do to wrap up the semester for
my class. A song/chant bank, observation write-ups, integration lesson plans, peer teach,
and notebooks. These are things that I have been reminding, discussing, answering
questions on for weeks now.” The structure and curriculum of the course may need to be
changed so that students do not have so many assignments due at the end. However, the
responsibility for being “stressed” may actually fall on the students due to

procrastination.

Use of Musical Activities

Students expressed a greater level of comfort at the end of the semester for using
musical activities, although no student expressed a desire to be a music teacher. Jane
explained this in her December 15, 2001 journal entry, “I don’t feel comfortable
enough to teach a music class but I do feel comfortable enough to include music into my
classroom and use movement activities and listening activities with my students. I
learned a lot of fun activities that I never would have thought about doing with young
children and I plan on using them in my classroom.” Quantitative analysis of the
questionnaire revealed that students’ comfort levels positively increased for teaching
activities involving singing, listening, music concepts, rhythm, and creativity. Student
attitudes signiﬁcantly changed in a positive direction regarding having an understanding
of the importance of music education and teaching music within their own classrooms.
However, students did not waiver from the beginning to the end of the semester with
feeling only slightly comfortable teaching music at the elementary level. These ﬁndings
indicate that, although comfort levels and attitude increased regarding the use of music
activities, these preservice teachers did not view themselves as music specialists.
Future Use of Materials

The teacher-researcher questioned throughout the course and in her journal entries
whether positive attitudes and greater comfort levels would sustain the relevancy of
musical purposes and ﬁrture application of what the students learned in class. Her inner
struggle between relevancy and ﬁrture use of course content was revealed when she wrote
on October 8, 2001, “So, do I teach what is just practical for them, or (also) what I feel in

my educated conscience is right? I have a sneaky suspicion that it doesn’t matter to the

65

 

students, and that what I teach has no relevance to them because ‘they will never teach
music’ and therefore (the information) won’t be used.” She also questioned whether these
preservice educators, when in the profession as classroom teachers or music educators,
will revert to using music in a subservient fashion, “Research conﬁrms that (inservice)
teachers neglect the ‘ought to know’ stuff and go right for the activities. So, is it an uphill
battle?” A week later, on October 15, 2001, the teacher-researcher wrote ﬁrrther on her
inner struggle regarding the relevancy of course content, “. . . is this relevant to their
educational goals, do they see this as being important?” and its future application “. . .but,
you (the teacher-researcher) know that if they teach music they are going to need to know
this. . Even though the teacher-researcher had concerns, students expressed that they
had learned a lot and could see how the class related to their future as educators.
Throughout the semester to the last journal entry, references were made regarding being
able to use the activities from the course in the future classrooms of these preservice
elementary educators. In addition, a positive attitude carried through to the end of the
semester. Rachel remarked at the end of the semester in her journal entry dated December
2, 2001, “In my elementary school we always went to music class and the classroom
teacher didn’t really do anything with music. I am happy that I had to take this class
because I know if it would have been an optional class I would not have taken it and
would have missed out.” On December 3, 2001, Jane wrote in her journal, “These last
couple of weeks while working on the lesson plans I have realized how much I can use
music in my classroom when I am a teacher. I feel a lot more comfortable using the
different ideas and activities to teach music.” The questionnaire analysis revealed a

broad, positive change in attitude, as well as higher levels of comfort with music

66

activities and for teaching music. Having positive attitudes and greater levels of comfort
for teaching music appear to be the ﬁrst steps toward application within the ﬁrture
classrooms of these preservice elementary educators.

Research Question Two: How do preservice elementary educators resmnd

to various instnrctional strategies or assignments within a
music methods course for non-music majors?

 

Write and Talk

Students responded positively to the “write and talk” discussion technique used in
class. For this technique, the instructor poses a question, an idea, or theme, and has
students write every answer or thought they can generate. After a brief period of time, or
when the majority of students appear to be ﬁnished with writing, the instructor has
students turn to another student, or form a small group and discuss what they wrote.
Then, the instructor has students share with the class what they had written and discussed.
One student, Jill, mentioned in her ﬁrst journal entry ﬁ'om August 31, 2001, that she
liked this technique. “Since our class is very quiet, I liked how you had us talk to the
person next to us about what we had written down on Thursday.” The teacher-researcher
also noted in her ﬁrst journal entry that “they (the students) are very quiet” and that more
class participation in class discussions resulted from the use of this technique which
seemed to help some students formulate their thoughts and have a voice in the discussion
process.
Uppaamed Review

One assignment was the creation of a song and chant bank. As part of this
assignment, students were called upon to use skills they had acquired in the pro-requisite

theory class. These skills included reading music typical of the songs used in a general

67

music curriculum and identifying tonality and meter. The teacher-researcher found that,
as a whole, the students were unable to read or even decode music notation, and they
were unable to identify tonality and meter. A review of tonalities and meters, and
techniques to decode music was necessary, although it was not a planned part of the
course. The response to taking time out of the course schedule for the review was very
favorable. Liz remarked, on September 18, 2001, “Thank you for being patient with
us. . .and for ‘re-teaching’ some stuff... it made much more sense coming from you with
your personal examples than when I trie [sic.] to learn it through a formal lecture a few
semesters ago.” It appeared that the students had not mastered the material from the
prerequisite theory course; however, the questionnaire analysis revealed that students
agreed with the statements regarding the useﬁrlness of ﬁrndamentals courses in
preparation for methods courses at the beginning and the end of the semester.
Modeling and Demonstration

There was an overwhelming positive response for the techniques of modeling and
demonstration, especially for informal guidance and movement. This manner of content
delivery helped connections to be formed between the course and real-life teaching. On
December 2, 2001, Courtney wrote in her journal, “I really enjoy doing the activities that
we would also do with our students because I seem to remember them better when I do
them than when I just write them down.” Throughout the semester the students expressed
that they felt they were learning more through these learning-by-doing strategies than if
the course was lecture-based. According to the questionnaires, the level of comfort for
teaching music activities increased over the course of a semester, indicating that the use

of such teaching strategies may have affected the students’ comfort levels. In addition,

68

these teaching strategies may have affected the overall positive change in attitude toward
music and music teaching. Students did not just hear about the activities in a lecture
format, but experienced them ﬁrsthand, learned how to create the activities, and then peer
taught their activities to the class. Through the various means of experiencing music
learning, students were able to understand better what music education entails and why it
is important for music education to be a part of a child’s development.
Peer TeachirgActivities

Peer teaching was also important to the students for assignments that required
them to create their own activities. Students liked to see others’ work and ideas, and this
was especially true for the movement activities. Many felt that they received good ideas
from each other for future classroom use. Lynn summed up her thoughts regarding peer
teaching in her journal entry ﬁ'om October 8, 2001, “The class teach brought more new
ideas to my mind that I never would have thought of myself. What a great way to share
knowledge!” Sandy wrote in her journal on October 8, 2001, “It provided us with the
opportunity to share new and creative ideas that can be used with our students.” In her
journal entry from October 10, 2001, the teacher-researcher remarked, “The students had
a lot of creative ideas and props. It seems that peer teaching helps them to be more
accountable for learning the material. I hope it also sets the stage for ﬁrture use of
material in the classroom.” Peer teaching the activities that they had created may have
been a factor in the overall positive change in attitude and comfort level toward music
and music teaching. These experiences helped students to better understand what music

education entails and its importance in the life of a child.

69

Peer Teachingﬁoaga

The students responded with anxiety to the assignment of peer teaching a song
and a chant. Jill mentioned in her journal entry ﬁ'om September 17, 2001, that “I’m a
little nervous to get in front of everyone and sing since I have never even sang in ﬁ'ont of
my family members because my voice is not what you would call “pretty.” Although the
assignment was met with fear, the students actually understood the importance of
teaching a song and a chant, and indicated that was not as terrible as they had thought.
According to the analysis of the questionnaire, the students’ level of comfort for singing
to and with children increased signiﬁcantly by the end of the semester. This is an
indication that the manner in which peer teaching a song was conducted in class (graded
on a pass/fail basis, with students singing in small groups) helped students become more
comfortable with singing. Lynn admitted her nervousness for singing out loud around
adults in her September 17, 2001 journal entry but concluded that, “I think my only
saving grace will be that the singing/chanting teach sessions are graded pass/fail so trying
should be worth something (even if it’s not in the best singing voice)”
Creating Movemeat Activities

Several students reported that it was difﬁcult to create movement activities that
were different from the ones used by the teacher-researcher in the demonstration class
and that the assignment took more time to complete than they had thought it would.
Because this concern had been voiced before by students in her previous methods
courses, the teacher-researcher allowed students to work together on the assignment to
help them to be more creative with their activities. She wrote in her journal on October

10, 2001, “I. . . modiﬁed the movement assignment. This time students could work in

70

pairs, or alone. Every time I have assigned this the students have remarked at how big of
an assignment it is.” However, students still had trouble creating unique activities that
were different from those the teacher-researcher presented in class. On October 5, 2001,
Jill mentioned that, . .Kris and I had a good time putting our project together. . .The
different types of movement were hard to work with because all of our ideas seemed to
be along the lines of what you had, and we wanted to put different things down.”
Courtney mentioned, on October 7, 2001, that, “It took me a while [sic.] to think of some
creative ideas to do. . .I tried to think of some different ideas that were different from what
was already written down in our handout and thought it was pretty tough.” Reﬂecting on
these remarks, the teacher-researcher contemplated how much material she should
present to the class so that the students had enough information to understand Laban
movement, and how to create the movement activities. She also wondered whether
student reports regarding the size of the assignment were exaggerated, or aboveboard.
Her concerns of content presentation and assignment size were reﬂected in her October
10, 2001 journal entry, “But that’s part of the difﬁculty in teaching non-majors. Knowing
what is enough, too much, or if they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes.”
Listening Maps and Call Charts

Creating listening maps and call charts (to different instrumental selections) and
then teaching them to the class was a course assignment. This assignment followed a
lecture-demonstration on appropriate listening selections for children and another
lecture-demonstration on how to use and create a listening map and call chart. Students
felt that the listening map, and the call chart in particular, were a challenge to create due

to the extensive listening that was required. On November 6, 2001, Jane expressed her

71

concern that, “I just don’t think that I have good listening ability when it comes to
music.” However, the majority of the students had a favorable response regarding the
assignment. Courtney wrote in her journal on November 4, 2001 that she thought the
assignment would be a challenge, but “I think they are neat things to do and it lets you
use your imagination to the ﬁrllest extent.” Another student, Bill, wrote in his journal on
November 5, 2001, “I like doing activities like Call Charts and Listening Maps, it gives
me the chance to be creative.” One student expressed surprise at enjoying the assignment.
Debby wrote in her journal on November 12, 2001, “I enjoyed making both my call chart
and listening map, which is neat because at ﬁrst I thought it was going to be a stupid
assignment and I learned quite a bit from it.” While the teacher-researcher believes this to
be a valuable assignment due to the deep listening that is required due to the many times
students need to listen to their selections, in her journal entry ﬁ'om November 14, 2001,
she expressed concern that the positive student response to the assignment was because
of the visual/artistic component of the assignment and not necessarily because of the
assignment’s musical value. “I spent one class period showing different examples of call
charts and listening maps with their corresponding music. . .They love it. It’s like the draw
to a music assignment that’s not really doing music.” In the questionnaire analysis, a
higher level of comfort for using listening activities was found at the end of the semester,
which conﬁrms the positive response of the students toward the listening map and call
chart activities.

The teacher-researcher received negative feedback regarding the amount of time it
took students to complete the call chart. She has found this response to be typical of

students in a non-music major methods course regarding this assignment. Because of this

72

type of feedback from previous courses she has taught, she chose to modify her approach
to teaching the construction of listening maps and call charts this semester. In fact, she
felt that the students had a good understanding of what they were to do to complete the
assignment. After taking students through call chart demonstrations, she then had the
students create a call chart in class. First, students were placed in groups of three to four
students. The teacher-researcher played Tchaikovsky’s March from The Nutcracker,
because she had found that many were familiar with the music. As a result, the students
were able to complete the task within the allotted class time. Next, the students wrote
down everything they heard while the music was played again. Then, the students
checked what they heard with their small group. As the music was played again, the
students were to determine the overarching form of the music. She had the students
discuss what they had heard in their groups and sketched out a rough form of the piece on
the chalkboard. The music was played again to give the students an opportunity to check
whether the form was correct. The procedure of listening and writing, discussing within
the small group, then listening to check what was heard was repeated. After listening to
the piece ten times, the teacher-researcher and students had created a complete call chart
with sections and call numbers. The students seemed to understand the call chart process.
Debby mentioned in her November 5, 2001 journal entry, “We practiced making a call
chart, which was helpﬁrl to me because i [sic] wasn’t too sure how to do it before that!”
She noted that students might have had a more difﬁcult time, because they are not
accustomed to deeply listening to music, or that this assignment seemed to be more

of a challenge and the students felt that they had enough “voice” to air their complaints.

The teacher-researcher relayed in her journal entry from November 14, 2001 that, “I

73

 

 

think I am very entrenched musically and it becomes difﬁcult to understand what others
[who aren’t] ﬁnd to be hard.” Maybe I will better understand as I teach this. class more.”
According to the teacher-researcher’s class records, with the exception of two students,
the class created call charts that corresponded to the musical sections within their
listening selections, and all of the students created listening maps that “captured the

essence” of the music that they had chosen.

Enjoyment of Music and Movement

 

The semester ended with learning how to accompany a song and chant with
barred and rhythm instruments and how to teach and create dances. This culminated in
the students performing a dance they created to a song they learned, which included an
accompaniment of simple ostinati on barred and rhythm instruments. Students felt that
learning how to teach formal dance was fun, and they enjoyed working in groups to
create different types of dances. These sentiments were summarized in the November 29,
2001 journal entry of Kris. “I like how there are many different dances that you can use
with the [different] grade levels. When we made up the movements for the song The Zulu
Warrior and did the dance it was ﬁrn. Then when we got into groups and picked a song
and put a circle dance with that it was fun and we all got creative in what we did.”
Engaging the students in music making in ways that they will be able to use with their
future students probably had an inﬂuence on the overall positive change in attitude and
higher comfort levels for music and teaching music by the semester’s end as reﬂected in
the results of the content analysis of the journals.

Music TaaCher Observations

 

Observations were mentioned as being helpful to draw connections between the

74

methods course and the elementary general music class. . .I really enjoy observation
and going into classrooms/centers to see how other teachers teach,” wrote Lynn on
September 3, 2001. On September 17, 2001, Donna expressed her enthusiasm for
observing the teacher-researcher teach music to a kindergarten class. “I am really excited
to start my ﬁeld experience and observe the children at Applegarden. I love being with
the little children and my other classes don’t require ﬁeld experience so I’m happy to
have a few hours with your class.” Jill also wrote on September 17, 2001, “I really like
how we get a chance to see how teachers teach in a classroom. So many teachers have so
many different ways of teaching that I am excited to see how each teacher puts music in
the classroom.” On September 27, 2001, Kris said, “Just wanted to say that I think it is a
good idea that we are doing observations of music teachers to see how they teach
children music.” Doing observation was important to Rachel as she had not been in any
elementary classrooms that semester. She wrote on October 29, 2001, “ I go and do my
observations this week and I am excited about it [sic] I haven’t been in a school yet this
semester so i [sic] am happy to ﬁnally be going to one.”
Less-Cited Stratag'eLs

Several teaching strategies used by the teacher-researcher were either rarely, or
never mentioned in the student journals. Hand-outs were mentioned as being helpful, but
not enough to warrant them for consideration in the ﬁnal analysis. Kris found the
handouts to be helpful and wrote on September 27, 2001 “I really like the fact that we
have a sheet for the different movements in music to see the different kinds of activities
that can be used.”

The informal guidance lesson plan and the integrated-subject lesson plan received

75

little mention. That they were not mentioned may have been due to the busyness of the
end of the semester or that the students felt they were proceeding as they should on the
assignments. The song and chant bank was not mentioned as a teaching technique per se,
but many questions about this assignment were asked in class throughout the semester.
Lynn’s remark, from her September 10, 2001 entry, was representative of those students
who had read through the syllabus to determine what they needed to do for the course.
“I’m still not very clear on what the chant and song bank will really consist of, but plan
on ﬁgure [sic] that out soon. This week in the syllabus it shows we will be choosing
songs and chants so I hope this will clarify this aspect of the class requirements.” The
song and chant bank assignment was a means for students to engage in ﬁnding songs and
chants, to think about teaching them in a musically appropriate way, and to consider how
they might be integrated within the classroom. These skills needed to be honed,
especially since these preservice elementary educators will also be licensed to teach
music.

There were few references regarding notebooks. Notebooks were handed in the
latter part of the semester, and were to be organized to include class notes, handouts,
three observation reports, the song and chant bank, and the integrated-subject lesson plan.
The usefulness of the notebooks was primarily referred to in class, yet not in journal
entries. One entry pointed to the notebooks as a future resource. “I have been working on
my portfolio (notebook) and I think it will be very useful in the end,” said Donna on
October 8, 2001. When the notebooks were handed in, the teacher-researcher found out
that the students felt “notebooked to death” (Donna’s terminology), because most of their

methods courses required extensive notebooks at the semester’s end. This may account

76

for the few comments made regarding notebooks in the student journals.

For the most part, students did not comment about the use of self-evaluation and
peer-evaluation techniques for group assignments. They said very little about the use, and
in-class creating of rating scales to evaluate students’ assignments. There were several
students who mentioned in class that they appreciated receiving rating scales so they
knew what they would be evaluated on. Diane related on October 1, 2001, “Ok, for
my reﬂective journal this week ﬁrst of all I wanted to say thank you for the assessment
form. Assessment techniques are always something that gets discussed, but never in
depth. It is nice to have something solid to see. Something to use as a base for other
assessments.” It seemed, to the teacher—researcher, that the students were not accustomed
to participating in the evaluation process.

Negative Responses to Instructional Stpatagiaa

Lecture was never mentioned by the students as a preferred teaching technique;
however, students did mention disliking lecture-format. Debby shared her feelings for
lecture-oriented classes on September 9, 2001. “I am excited to begin classes with more
movement and music to them, rather than you lecturing to us.” Carol shared the same
sentiments in her September 23, 2001 journal entry. “Participating and being involved in
a class is a lot more fun then sitting there and listening to a lecture.” Rachel also agreed
in her October 8, 2001 entry, “ ...the last few classes where we have been up and moving
I have really enjoyed, i [sic] like the fact of moving rather than just sitting and being
lectured to.”

AMMA was the primary aspect of the course that caused a negative response from

these preservice elementary educators. Student response regarding AMI/IA was distinctly

77

unfavorable, most likely due to the audiational skill required for the test. That the
students responded so negatively to W causes concern about the validity of their test
results. Both of these aspects led the teacher-researcher to question whether All/HIM has
an instructional purpose within the methods course for preservice elementary educators.

Two other aspects of the course received negative responses. The students felt
that it was difficult to create movement activities that were different from the teacher-
researcher’s and that it had taken too much time to create call charts. Yet, the peer
teaching of the movement activities received a very favorable response, and, after
creating and peer teaching their call charts, the students felt that it had been time well
spent

There were concerns about assignments; however, there were no assignments that
were found to be irrelevant within the journal or course document analysis. Part of this
may be due to the possibility that the students did not feel comfortable voicing that an
assignment did not seem to meet their future professional needs, for fear it may eﬂ’ect
their grade in the course. Another reason for this could be that, at the undergraduate level,
students simply want to do the course work to get a good grade in the class, and therefore
do not question the assignments. The stage of learning and development of the students
may also provide information as to why there was no mention of assignments being
irrelevant. Many of the students may have been in the dualism stage of intellectual
development. In this stage, knowledge is viewed as concrete, absolute and discrete with
no middle ground, or alternative perspectives (Perry, 1999). Furthermore, students may
be developmentally in the silence, or received knowledge stage of learning and

development in which a person feels that knowledge and authority exist outside of self

78

(Gilligan, 1982; Goldberger, Tarule, McVicker-Clinchy & Belenky, 1996). Finally,
students may not ﬁnd course material relevant or irrelevant until they are engaged in a
practicum or student teaching experience, or when they become practitioners in the ﬁeld
(King & Kitchener, 1993).

Research mestion Three: Do the attitudes of preservice elementary educators

enrolled in an elementag music methods course for non-music majors
change regarding music instruction over the course of the semester?

Data concerning whether the preservice elementary educators’ attitudes changed
over the course of a semester were collected through a questionnaire that was
administered at the beginning of the semester and again at the end of the semester (see
Appendix D). Means and standard deviations were computed for the pretest and posttest
attitude questionnaire items (see Table 1). The means of the pretest and posttest attitude
questionnaire items were compared (see Figure 1). The comparison of pretest and posttest
means represented a positive trend for change in attitude for music and music teaching

over the length of the semester.

 

 

 

 

Questionnaire Items

 

I
l

 

 

I .1 Pretest m Posttest m
-

 

Positive: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7. 8, 9, 10, ll, 12, 15, l7, l8, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; Negative: 5, 6, ll, l3, l4, 16

Figure 1: Comparison of Pretest and Posttest Attitude Questionnaire Means

79

Table 1

Attitude Questionnaire Items: Pretest and Posttest Means and Standard Deviations

 

 

 

Item Pretest m Posttest m Pretest SD Posttest SD
1. 4.53 4.8 .51 .41
2. 4.26 4.6 .70 .63
3. 4.4 4.73 .63 .45
4. 2.73 2.53 .79 .83
5. 2.2 1.8 .67 .67
6. 2.6 1.8 .82 1.01
7. 4.06 4.06 .59 1.16
8. 3.86 4.53 1.35 .51
9. 3.73 4.2 .59 .77
10. 4.46 4.66 .63 .48
11. 3.66 3.73 .89 .79
12. 3.53 3.86 .63 .83
13. 2.93 2.13 1.16 .91
14. 1.86 1.66 .74 .61
15. 3.93 4.2 .79 .94
16. 2.0 1.73 .75 .79
17. 4.46 4.66 .63 .48
18. 3.73 3.86 .70 .83
19. 4.0 4.33 .53 .48
20. 4.0 4.33 .65 .61
21. 4.0 4.26 .75 .59
22. 4.26 4.53 .45 .63
23. 3.6 4.33 1.05 .72
24. 3.73 3.66 .45 .81
25. 3.73 4.26 .96 .45
26. 3.66 4.2 1.04 .77
(N=15)

To explore whether there were differences in participants’ attitude between the
pre— and posttest questionnaire means, the teacher-researcher performed paired
comparison t-tests. Table 2 presents the means, standard deviations, t-values and p-values

of the pretest and posttest questionnaire items.

80

Table 2

Means, Standard Deviations, and Paired Comparison t-values for Questionnaire Items

 

 

Pretest m Posttest m Pretest SD Posttest SD 1 p
1. 4.53 4.8 .51 .41 1.73 .052
2. 4.26 4.6 .70 .63 1.78 .048*
3. 4.4 4.73 .63 .45 2.09 .027“
4. 2.73 2.53 .79 .83 1.14 .136
5. 2.2 1.8 .67 .67 2.45 .014“
6. 2.6 1.8 .82 1.01 3.29 .003*
7. 4.06 4.06 .59 1.16 0 .500
8. 3.86 4.53 1.35 .51 1.85 .043“
9. 3.73 4.2 .59 .77 2.43 .015“
10. 4.46 4.66 .63 .48 1.38 .094
11. 3.66 3.73 .89 .79 .29 .387
12. 3.53 3.86 .63 .83 1.23 .118
13. 2.93 2.13 1.16 .91 2.57 .011"
14. 1.86 1.66 .74 .61 1.14 .136
15. 3.93 4.2 .79 .94 1.47 .082
16. 2.0 1.73 .75 .79 1.16 .136
17. 4.46 4.66 .63 .48 1.38 .094
18. 3.73 3.86 .70 .83 .62 .273
19. 4.0 4.33 .53 .48 2.09 .027"
20. 4.0 4.33 .65 .61 2.64 .009“
21. 4.0 4.26 .75 .59 1.73 .052
22. 4.26 4.53 .45 .63 1.74 .052
23. 3.6 4.33 1.05 .72 2.75 008*
24. 3.73 3.66 .45 .81 .32 .376
25. 3.73 4.26 .96 .45 1.95 .036*
26. 3.66 4.2 1.04 .77 2.26 .020“

 

(N=15; df= 14) *p<.05

Twelve of 26 items of the attitude portion of the questionnaire indicated signiﬁcant
statistical change (see Table 2). Caution is warranted when interpreting these results
individually, as the possibility exists that a Type I Error occurred and that a result was
obtained by chance. The questionnaire items are presented below, grouped by four
overarching themes of Inclusion of Music Within the School Curriculum, Extra-Musical

Beneﬁts of Music Instruction, Classroom Teacher’s Role In Music Instruction, and

81

Appreciation of Music.
Inclusion of Music Within the School Curriculum
Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Items
Two items, of those items for which there were no signiﬁcant changes, were
found to fall within the category of Inclusion of Music Within the School Curriculum.
Students had strong agreement with the following statements ﬁ'om both pretest and
posttest administrations:

Item 1: It is necessary for music to be included in the school curriculum.

 

Item 17: Music should be included in every elementary school curriculum.
One item indicated agreement from both pretest and posttest administrations:
Item 12: Music should be considered one of the basic, or core subjects.
Two items indicated disagreement ﬁ'om both pretest and posttest administrations:
Item 14: Music should be one of the ﬁrst programs out during a ﬁnancial crisis.

Item 16: Public schools should be responsible for mainly academic education, not
aesthetic education.

Statistically Signiﬁcant Items
Four items, of those items for which there were signiﬁcant changes, were found to
fall within the category of Inclusion of Music Within the School Curriculum. At the end
of the semester, students had greater agreement with these statements:

Item 8: Every child should receive at least one hour of music instruction
per week.

Item 19: Every school should have access to a school music specialist.
Greater disagreement was expressed at the end of the semester with these statements:

Item 5: Music is a hill, and therefore limits should be set on its role
within the school curriculum.

 

82

Item 6: An hour per week of instruction by a music specialist is adequate
to ﬁll the basic musical needs of students.

Discussion

Preservice elementary educators’ support for the inclusion of music within the
school curriculum was indicated by the students’ change in attitude regarding the need
for more than an hour per week of music instruction by a music specialist to meet the
musical needs of children, the need for a music specialist in every school, that children
should have at least one hour of music instruction per week, and that the role of music in
the school curriculum should not be limited. These statements were supported in the
student journals which revealed that students’ believed music to be important to children
and their musical development, and therefore should be a part of the school curriculum.
Donna mentioned enjoying the class discussion on the importance of music to a child in
her ﬁrst journal entry dated August 31, 2001. “I enjoyed the discussion on Thursday
when we were talking about how music is important to children on a personal level as
well as a developmental level.” Jill related on August 30, 2001 in her journal, “I don’t
think I ever realized that every child is born with music potential. . .It was very interesting
to learn that by age 9 a child’s potential stabilizes. This is why it is very important to
incorporate music in childrens [sic] every day lives.” Students also remarked on the
importance of music in the early childhood years. On September 10, 2001, Sandy spoke
of the lack of music in her early years and how it relates to the importance of her using
music as a future classroom teacher. “I was exposed to some music when I was growing
up, but not a lot. This is why I think is one reason I am not that musically gifted... As I
have grown older I have really come to like and appreciate music. . .I am anxious to learn

how we can approach music by using movement and play. It sounds like such a fun way

83

for children to learn and enjoy music even at young ages.”

Many of the preservice educators reported in their journals having had no musical
background or felt that they had musical inadequacies. Liz explained in her ﬁrst journal
entry from September 3, 2001, “I am a little nervous for this class. I am a horrible singer
so I get embarrassed when I have to sing with large groups of people.” Even after feeling
a low level of anxiety regarding peer teaching a song, Diane still had reservations about
her musical ability and wrote on October 1, 2001, “Don’t get me wrong, it is still
impossible for me to make a pleasant sound when I sing...” The preservice teachers were
also found to have a low level of comfort for teaching general music. Perhaps the
preservice teachers’ agreement with the statement of every school having a music
specialist stems from a lack of musical training or lack of musical conﬁdence along with
a low comfort level for teaching elementary general music.

Extra-Musical Beneﬁts of Music Instruction
Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Items

Two items, of those items for which there were no signiﬁcant changes, were
found to fall within the category of Extra-Musical Beneﬁts of Music Instruction. These
items indicated that students had agreement with the following statements from both
pretest and posttest administrations:

Item 18: Students who are involved in a successful music program are less likely
to have behavioral problems in school.

Item 22: Music is a good way to teach other subjects.
Statistically Signiﬁcant Items
F our items, of those items for which there were signiﬁcant changes, were found to

fall within the category of Extra-Musical Beneﬁts of Music Instruction. At the end of the

84

semester, students had greater agreement with these statements:

Item 2: Students who are involved in a successful music program are
more likely to succeed in academic areas.

Item 3: Participating in musical activities in school serves as an important social
and cultural ﬁsnction.

Item 9: Music students tend to be more successful in academic courses as
a result of music instruction.

Item 20: Participating in musical activities outside of the school day
serves an important social and cultural function.

Discussion

These results indicate that, after a semester of a music methods course, this
population felt more strongly that musical activities occurring within the school day serve
an important social and cultural function, and that students tend to do better academically
due to music instruction. The topic of extra-musical beneﬁts was not explicitly discussed
during the semester, as revealed by content analysis of the course documents, journals of
the students, and the journal of the teacher-researcher. The teacher-researcher does not
endorse the notion that students involved in successful music programs are also
successﬁrl academically and therefore did not convey that to the preservice teachers. The
positive change in attitude regarding music and academics may be a result of commonly
held beliefs regarding music instruction, beliefs conveyed by the media, or possibly
beliefs conveyed in other education courses the students had or were taking. Having
greater agreement with participation in musical activities inside and outside of school as
being important socially and culturally may have resulted ﬁ'om the study of the Pre-K
through 12 National Standards for Music Education (MENC, 1996) and the subsequent

discussion that evolved in class on September 6, 2001 of integrating music to enhance

85

culturally-based activities. Also, for the song and chant bank, students were to determine
(if possible) the nationality or origin of the song or chant. Content analysis did not reveal
any other instructional strategy that was linked to the students having greater agreement
for these attitudes.
C_lassroom Teacher’s Role in Music Instruction
Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Items

Two items, of those items for which no signiﬁcant differences were found, fall
within the category of Role of the Classroom Teacher in Music Instruction. Students
expressed agreement with these statements for both pretest and posttest administrations:

Item 1 1: School music teachers should be mostly concerned with developing good
attitudes toward music than with teaching music content.

Item 21: The classroom teacher should supplement the music instruction provided
by the music specialist by spending time on music during other times in the week.

Statistically Signiﬁcant Items
Three items, for which there were signiﬁcant differences, are included in the
category of Role of the Classroom Teacher in Music Instruction. Students expressed
greater agreement with these statements:
Item 23: I would like to teach music in my own classroom.

Item 25: The classroom teacher should be aware of how children develop
musically.

Item 26: The classroom teacher should know how to teach music to
children who are at different musically-developmental levels.

Discussion

At the end of the semester, this population of preservice elementary classroom

86

teachers had a strong shift in attitude toward wanting to teach music within their own
classrooms. However, both at the beginning and the end of the semester, students
believed that classroom teachers should supplement music instruction, and the students
did not want the responsibility of being a music specialist. This ﬁnding was upheld by the
student journal analysis. The analysis of student journals from September 3, 2001,
indicated that the students viewed music as important in children’s lives, and, as future
teachers, they are prepared to share responsibility for the musical development of
children. Jane’s journal entry expressed the sentiments of the class. “I am very interested
in learning the different techniques and ideas on teaching children music and songs.
Although I have never thought about being a music teacher I have always thought about
using songs and music in my (future) classroom.” The analysis of the student journals,
teacher-researcher’s journal, and course documents also revealed that, during the
semester, the students learned how to create and use a variety of musical activities that
they felt would be practical for their ﬁrture use. On November 5, 2001, Liz remarked, “I
think it (class) is great! I am actually learning stuff that I will use in my classroom in the
ﬁiture.” Lynn’s entry of December 3, 2001 was similar. “The lecture and activities in
class have been fun and interesting. I think that I am going to really be able to use the
stuff that I am learning in this class.” In her December 3, 2001 entry, Jane related that,

. .I have realized how much I can use music in my classroom when I am a teacher. . .I
feel a lot more comfortable using the different ideas and activities to teach music.”
Comfort levels for using musical activities either remained high or increased over the
semester. These ﬁndings provide additional support for the preservice educators’ desire

to teach music within their classrooms,

87

The musical development of children and developmentally appropriate practice
were emphasized throughout the course. Preservice teachers felt more strongly at the end
of the semester that the classroom teacher should understand musical development and
know how to teach music to children who are at different musically-developmental
levels. In her September 16, 2001 journal entry, Diane shared her thoughts on the musical
development of children in relationship to the class discussion held on the parallels
between musical and language development. “This is very interesting to me because I am
fascinated with the process in which children learn to speak. They are exposed to
language every day and are saturated with speech, still learning the complexities of
language takes years. It seems sad that many children have very little exposure to music
and are expected to understand it.” On September 10, 2001, Jill spoke of why she thought
understanding musical development is important and what it means to her as a ﬁrture
educator. “On Tuesday during class learning the stages of how children learn (music)
really interested me. This made it easier to understand children that will be in my
classroom and how they are thinking at that age. The different kinds of responses ﬁ'om
the different age groups shows that all children cannot be taught with the same technique.
This will help my teaching style so I can adapt to how the children learn best.”
Appreciation of Music

Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Items

One item, of those items for which no signiﬁcant changes were found, indicated
that the students had strong agreement with the following statement from both pretest
and posttest administrations:

Item 10: Open-mindedness to many different kinds of music is a worthy attribute.

88

Two items, of those items for which no signiﬁcant changes were found, indicated that
students had agreement with the following statements from both pretest and posttest
administrations:

Item 7: When one has a basic knowledge of music fundamentals, music can be
better appreciated.

Item 15: Music is an inseparable part of my daily life.
Statistically Signiﬁcant Items

One item of those items for which there were signiﬁcant differences indicated that
students had greater agreement with this statement:

Item 13: Appreciating music depends on knowing a great deal about it.

Discussion

On September 10, 2001, Sandy spoke of not being gifted musically, yet really
liking and appreciating music as she has gotten older. “I was exposed to some music as I
was growing up as a child, but not a lot. I think that’s why I am not that musically
gifted. . .Now I can’t imagine riding in a car, or sitting in a room without listening to
music. I want to be a parent and teacher that surround my children with music. I want to
develop music appreciation for children in ﬁrn and exciting ways.” While she feels she is
not gifted musically, music is still important in her own life, and, as a ﬁrture parent and/or
teacher, she hopes to help children realize music’s importance in their lives. Many of the
students felt musically inadequate; yet, the course was constructed in such a way that
many of the weekly themes could be incorporated at the elementary school level, even if
the preservice teachers had no prior musical knowledge or experience. This was
because the teacher-researcher could not depend on the students to have a basic

knowledge of music fundamentals or audiational skills when they came to the class. At

89

the end of the semester, comfort levels for using music activities were high. Perhaps
having successful experiences in the course accounted for some of the positive change of
attitudes regarding appreciating music without having direct knowledge about it.
Non-Statistically Signiﬁgrnt Attitude Items
Results and Discussion

Items having no statistically signiﬁcant change (p<.05) ﬁom pretest to posttest
had meaning in regard to student attitudes and levels-of-comfort. For both pretest and
posttest administrations of the questionnaire, students had “strong agreement” with items
1, 10, and 17 of the attitude portion, indicating that attitudes remained strong throughout
the semester regarding the need for music in the school curriculum (Items 1 and 17) and
for being open-minded about different types of music (Item 10).

“Agreement” on both the pretest and posttest was expressed for items 7, ll, 12,
15, 18, 21, 22, and 24, indicating semester-long prevailing attitudes of: a) music
fundamentals lead to better appreciation of music, b) music teachers should be concerned
about developing good attitudes over teaching musical content, c) music should be a core
subject, (1) music is inseparable from these preservice teachers’ lives, e) involvement in
music is equated with less behavior problems in school, f) classroom teachers should
supplement music instruction, g) music is a good way to teach other subjects, and h)
fundamentals courses help to prepare for music methods courses.

That the students agreed with the statement that fundamentals courses are
helpful to prepare for methods courses was an interesting ﬁnding, given that an entire
class period was used to review material either not remembered nor learned in the

prerequisite fundamentals course and that a majority of students mentioned the review

90

in their journal entries. This statement provides further clariﬁcation, “I appreciate that
you go over the basics because I don’t always remember from music 2200 class (ex.
meters and tonality),” wrote Donna on September 17, 2001.

The idea that music educators should develop good attitudes over and above
teaching musical content and the notion that musical involvement means less behavior
problems in school were never purposely conveyed within this methods course. The use
of music to teach other subjects was not emphasized within the course but was
approached through students creating a lesson plan that integrated music with another
subject area and through the song and chant bank, for which students wrote a sentence
regarding how the song or chant might be used for another subject (see Appendix C). In
both cases, students were to write how to appropriately teach the music component.
Music as a core subject, as well as the importance of classroom teachers to the music
education of children, were aspects that were emphasized throughout the course, which
may explain why students continued to agree with those statements.

For both pretest and posttest attitude questionnaire items, Item 4 resulted with the
response of “unsure” indicating that these preservice educators remained unsure about
whether musical ability is hereditary. This ﬁnding could have occurred because the belief
that musical ability is hereditary is commonly held, and this course emphasized the
importance of heredity coupled with the environment for musical development (Gordon,
1997; Gordon, 1990; Valerio, Reynolds, Bolton, Taggart & Gordon, 1998). Either
students had not come to terms with the fact that environment also impacts musical
ability, or class discussions relating to this particular statement rendered this

questionnaire item confusing for the students.

91

Finally, the attitude of “disagreement” carried through the semester with items 14
and 16, which stated, respectively, that music should be the ﬁrst subject to be cut during a
ﬁnancial crisis, and that public schools should be concerned with academic education
over an aesthetic education. Students’ beliefs that music education has artistic value and
is important within the elementary level curriculum did not change during the
semester.
Reseﬁh Question Four: Does the level of comfort of preservice elementgy educators

enrolled in an elementa_ry music methods course for non-music majors
for teaching music change over the course of the semester?

 

Data regarding whether the preservice elementary educators’ level of comfort for
teaching music activities changed over the course of a semester were collected through a
questionnaire that was administered at the beginning of the semester and again at the end
of the semester (see Appendix D). Means and standard deviations were computed for the
pretest and posttest level of comfort items of the questionnaire (see Table 3).

The means of the pretest and posttest level of comfort questionnaire items were
compared (see Figure 2). The comparison of pretest and posttest means revealed that all
of the means increased at the end of the semester for level of comfort for using music
activities. This represents a positive trend for level-of comfort for music and music

teaching over the length of the semester.

92

Level of Comfort Questionnaire

4 5 6
Questionnaire Items
[-Pretest m DPostteatm ]

 

 

 

Figure 2: Comparison of Pretest and Posttest Level of Comfort Questionnaire Means
Table 3

Level of Comfort Questionnaire Items Pretest and Posttest Means and Standard
Deviations

 

Item Pretest m Posttest m Pretest SD Posttest SD

 

 

l. 3.55 3.93 1.06 .70
2. 3.33 4.0 .81 .92
3. 4.06 4.4 .79 .73
4. 4.4 4.5 .73 .50
5. 3.06 3.73 1.03 .59
6. 3.73 4.33 .88 .61
7. 3.73 4.5 .88 .51
8. 2.66 3.0 1.23 .92
9. 2.66 3.2 .89 .67
(N=15)

To explore whether there were differences in participants’ attitude between the
pre- and posttest questionnaire means, the teacher-researcher performed paired
comparison t-tests. Table 4 presents the means, standard deviations, t-values and p-values

of the pretest and posttest level of comfort questionnaire items.

93

Table 4

Means, Standard Deviations, and Paired Comparison t-values for Level of Comfort
Questionnaire Items

 

 

Item Pretest m Posttest m Pretest SD Posttest SD t p

1. 3.55 3.93 1.06 .70 2.10 .027"
2. 3.33 4.0 .81 .92 2.87 .006*
3. 4.06 4.4 .79 .73 1.58 .068
4. 4.4 4.5 .73 .50 1.38 .094
5. 3.06 3.73 1.03 .59 1.92 .038“
6. 3.73 4.33 .88 .61 2.20 .022*
7. 3.73 4.5 .88 .51 4.0 .001*
8. 2.66 3.0 1.23 .92 .92 .186
9. 2.66 3.2 .89 .67 2.10 028*

 

(N=15; df=14) ‘p<.05
Five of the eight level of comfort items showed statistically signiﬁcant positive change in
level of comfort at the end of the semester. Item number 9 which was concerned with
how students rated their level of musicianship, also had statistically signiﬁcant positive
change. Again, the possibility exists that one of the results may have occurred by chance,
so individual differences should be viewed with caution.

Preservice elementary educators’ levels of comfort for music and music teaching
increased for these ﬁve items:

Item 1: How comfortable would you feel singing to or with children?

Item 2: How comfortable would you feel teaching a music listening lesson
to children?

Item 5: How comfortable would you feel discussing musical concepts
with your children?

Item 6: How comfortable would you feel playing rhythm instruments
with your children?

Item 7: How comfortable would you feel using musically creative activities with
your children?

94

Following is a discussion of questionnaire items grouped by level of comfort items.
Comfort with Singing

Students felt a great deal of concern about singing, and the assignment of peer
teaching a song and chant brought about concern and fear of performing in ﬁ'ont of
others. The teacher-researcher structured the peer teaching session in such a way that
students could have as much success and comfort as possible. Students participated in a
small group and were graded on a pass/fail basis. Lynn admitted her nervousness for
singing out loud around adults in her September 17, 2001 journal entry but concluded
that, “I think my only saving grace will be that the singing/chanting teach sessions are
graded pass/fail so trying should be worth something (even if it’s not in the best singing
voice)” Aﬁer the peer teaching segment, students found that it was not as difﬁcult as
they had thought and indicated enjoyment after it was over. On October 3, 2001, Debby
shared, “What an unstressﬁrl and enjoyable event. It was no where near as scary as I
thought it was going to be. I enjoyed doing this activity because it helped me gain a better
understanding not only of what we were supposed to do, but also that doing these types
of things with the children are really beneﬁcial to them.”
Comfort with Listening

Creating a listening map and a call chart (to different instrumental selections)
followed a lecture-demonstration on appropriate listening selections for children and
another lecture-demonstration on how to use and create a listening map and call chart.
Students felt that the listening map, and the call chart in particular, were challenging to
create, due to the extensive listening that was required. On November 6, 2001, Jane

expressed her concern that, “I just don’t think that I have good listening ability when it

95

comes to music.” However, the majority of the students had a favorable response
regarding the assignment. Another student, Bill, wrote in his journal on November 5,
2001, “I like doing activities like Call Charts and Listening Maps, it gives me the chance
to be creative.” Debby wrote in her journal on November 12, 2001, “I enjoyed making
both my call chart and listening map. .

The teacher-researcher received negative feedback within the class regarding the
amount of time it took students to complete the call chart, a response typical of students
in this course. This semester, she modiﬁed her approach to teaching the construction of
listening maps and call charts and felt that the students had a good understanding of what
they were to do to complete the assignment.’ Although students felt that the assignment
was demanding, 87 percent of the students were successful with creating their call charts
and listening maps.

Comfort with DiscussimgMusical Concepts

Students were exposed to musical concepts throughout the semester as they
participated in class and did the course assignments. Concepts such as macrobeat,
microbeat, resting tone, tonality, major, Do, minor, La, meter, duple, triple, ostinato,
dynamics, and form were primarily encountered in class through skills sessions, lecture-
demonstration, and modeling. Then students were told what the concepts were. There
was little formal class discussion of musical concepts. Instead, they were integrated
within each class as a natural component. Although, the students had taken a prerequisite
theory course, they were unable to read or decode music, and were unable to identify

tonality and meter. The teacher-researcher provided a brief review of tonalities and

 

’ A more complete discussion of call charts and listening maps as teaching strategies is
provided earlier in the chapter.

96

meters, and techniques to decode music, although it was not a planned part of the course.
Liz remarked on September 18, 2001, “Thank you for being patient with us. . .and for “re-
teaching” some stuff... it made much more sense coming from you with your personal
examples than when I trie [sic] to learn it through a formal lecture a few semesters ago.”
Perhaps learning music concepts through direct experiences helped the preservice
teachers feel more comfortable with teaching music concepts.
Comfort with Using Rhythm Instruments

During the semester, students had both exploratory and formal opportunities to
play rhythm and barred instruments. Macrobeat and microbeat ostinati were performed
on rhythm instruments in skills sessions. Rhythm instruments were also used as
accompaniment to short poems. Instruments were incorporated with many lecture-
demonstrations and model lessons, such as informal guidance, movement, and formal
dance. In the ﬁnal activity of the semester, the students performed a dance to a song they
sang, which included an accompaniment of simple ostinati on barred and rhythm
instruments. In content analysis of student journals, playing instruments received very
little mention. All instrument playing was done within class meetings. There may not
have been much mentioned about playing instruments because students did not have an
assignment based on the use of instruments.
Comfort with Musically Creative Activities

The change in comfort level for using musically creative activities may be
explained by assignments in which the students were participants in a lecture or model-
demonstration class, then assigned to create and ﬁnally peer teach their own musical

activities. Through these experiences, students gained conﬁdence in their own ability to

97

be musically creative, and subsequently, had a higher level of comfort for using
musically creative activities in the classroom. Courtney wrote on September 21, 2001, “I
really enjoyed the hands on activities that we did in class on Thursday. Doing those kinds
of activities not only helps me to remember things better but it gets my mind thinking of
different and creative ways in which I can work with my students in music and other
subjects as well.” Cindy mentioned on October 8, 2001 that, she “. . . had a wonderﬁrl
time on thursday [sic] presenting and performing the different movement activities. .
and that, “They were all extremely great and creative, which has given me many creative
ideas for the future.” Donna (journal entry dated October 8, 2001) was in agreement, “I
think I have really beneﬁted from peer teaching this activity. It provided us with the
opportunity to share new and creative ideas that can be used with our students.”

At the end of the semester, students learned a song and accompaniment on barred and
rhythm instruments, then worked in groups to create different types of dances. On
December 10, 2001, Debby commented on that particular activity, “Creating our own
was really ﬁrn, it allowed us to be creative and communicate with a group of our peers.”
In the same journal entry she also remarked, “This was fun and I think that it will be
really useful in a classroom experience.” Engaging the students in music making through
ways that they will be able to use and expand upon with their future students probably
had an inﬂuence on the overall positive change in attitude and higher comfort levels for

music and teaching music by the semester’s end.

Non-Statistically Signiﬁcant Level of Comfort Items

 

“Moderate comfort” was the long-standing feeling expressed for item 29, moving

to music with children. Students overwhelmingly stated in their journals that they

98

enjoyed the movement demonstration and peer teaching class sessions. These remarks
may have been in part due to a predisposition for feeling comfortable with movement.
Carol captured the essence of this class with this excerpt from her October 7, 2001 entry.
“Class last Thursday was a lot of fun with sharing our group projects. It was more ﬁrn
then I had anticipated.” Jane’s entry from October 8, 2001 was in agreement; however
she also “felt these presentations were a very good learning experience.”

Throughout the semester, these preservice educators felt somewhere between

“moderately comfortable” and “very comfortable” with playing musical games with

 

children (Item 30). This ﬁnding may be a reﬂection of students feeling comfortable with
using music and music activities with children as part of “circle time,” traditionally
known as a time of gathering in the early childhood curriculum.

The feeling of being “slightly comfortable” with teaching music at the elementary
level (Item 34) was consistent over the semester. This ﬁnding has meaning in that the
students did not perceive themselves to be music educators at the beginning or at the end
of the semester. Perhaps the comfort level did not change, because the preservice
educators realized that, for deep musical learning to occur within children, more
knowledge of how children learn music and more musical skill acquisition is necessary.
Mew

One questionnaire item did not directly relate to attitude or level of comfort.
Questionnaire Item 9, rate your level of musicianship, had a positive statistically
signiﬁcant level of change. Students’ perception of their level of musical ability increased
over the course of a semester. This ﬁnding may be explained by their overall positive

change in attitude toward music and music instruction and having higher levels of

99

comfort for teaching music at the end of the semester.

Reseagzh Question Five: Do any of the following: music aptitude, self-rating of music
ability. self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course. ograst music

experience in an ensemble. or formai instruction function as predictors of preservice
elemengry educators’ attitudes or comfort level ?

 

For this research question, multiple regression analysis was performed with music
aptitude, self-rating of musical ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers,
past musical experience in an ensemble, and past formal instruction acting as independent
variables with pretest questionnaire items, and then pretest to posttest questionnaire item
gains scores, acting as dependent variables. A discussion of the statistics from the v
administration of AM (Gordon, 1989) is presented ﬁrst, as AMMA was used as the
measure of music aptitude. The results of the multiple regression analysis follow.

AA/ﬂl/IA

__—

All/014A (Gordon, 1989) was used to determine students’ tonal, rhythm, and
composite music aptitudes. In addition, AAM-Rhythm and AM Tonal were used as
independent variables in the forthcoming multiple regression analysis. Two students were
absent on the day of the test administration, which lowered the population to 13 students
for this portion of the analysis. Scores were obtained using the procedure described in the

test manual (Gordon, 1989). Table 5 provides the means and standard deviations of the

test scores.

100

Table 5

Means and Standard Deviations for All/014A

 

 

 

m SD
Present Study * AMMA Man—ual'” Present Study” AMI/1A Manual"
Tonal 21.6 24.3 3.9 3.9
Rhythm 23.6 27.4 3.9 4.11
Composite 44.8 51.7 6.5 8.49

 

*(N=13); **(N=2,130)

The means and standard deviations found in this study conform closely to an equal
distribution, given that thirteen students took the test for this study, and are similar to but
slightly lower than those reported in the test manual.

Split-halves reliabilities corrected with the Spearman-Brown Prophecy formula
were used to establish reliability. For the present study, the reliability coefficients were
r=.68 for the tonal subtest; r=.65 for the rhythm subtest; and r=.74 for the total test.
Gordon (1989) found the split-halves reliabilities corrected with the Spearman-Brown
Prophecy formula to be r=.80 for the tonal subtest; r=.80 for the rhythm subtest; and
r=.81 for the total test with a non-music major population. He reports the test-retest
reliabilities to be r=.80 for the tonal subtest, r=.81 for the rhythm subtest, and r=.83 for
the total test. Both sets of reliabilities, as reported by Gordon in the test manual, are
higher than what was found for the tonal and rhythm subtests as well as the composite
test in this study.

The lower reliabilities found in the present study may be due to the small
sample size that completed All/0W1 in this study. Gordon’s higher reliabilities were
probably found due to the large sample size (N=2,130 non-music majors), or the
heterogeneity of the population he used to establish the non-music major norms.

Additionally, Gordon states in the test manual that the high split-halves reliabilities may

101

be due to how the tests were divided.

Intercorrelations between the tonal and rhythm subtests and composite test scores

found in the All/014A test manual, and for the present study are presented in Table 6.

 

 

 

Table 6
Intercorrelations of AAM
Present Study AM/[A Manual
Tonal Rhythm Compoaite Tomi] Rhythm Composite
Tonal 1 .39 .87 l .72 .93
Rhythm .39 l .84 .72 1 .91
p<.05

 

As can be seen, a low to moderate correlation existed between the tonal and rhythm
subtests for the present study. In the test manual, a stronger intercorrelation was reported
between the rhythm and tonal subtests than was found in this study. That there are
intercorrelations between the tonal and rhythm subtests for AMWI in the present study
and in the test manual is to be expected because AMMA tests for both tonal and rhythm
aptitude within one test and both subtests share the answer of “same” (Gordon, 1989).
.High intercorrelations between the scores of the tonal and rhythm subtests and the

composite scores are also to be expected as the composite score is comprised of both

tonal and rhythm scores.

The intercorrelations of the present study are lower than the reliabilities found for
this administration of AMMA, and the intercorrelations as found in the test manual are
81 so lower than the reliabilities reported in the test manual. The low intercorrelations for

tl‘ais study may be attributed to low reliabilities that were obtained. While in both

i rastances the subtests have much in common, enough variance exists so that each subtest

i 8 separate from the other (Gordon, 1989).

102

AM as Predictor of Pretest Ouestionniaire Items

Multiple regression analysis was used to determine whether music aptitude
ﬁrnctions as a predictor of attitude or level of comfort as measured by the pretest
questionnaire. Pretest questionnaire items functioned as dependent variables with AA/ﬂl/IA-
Tonal and AA/ﬂl/tA-Rhythm scores functioning as independent variables. The results are
presented in Table 7. Two students were absent the day AA/ﬂl/IA was administered;
therefore their pretest questionnaire scores were omitted from the analysis. Three pretest
questionnaire items were found to share the highest common variance with AA/ﬂl/IA.
However, only two questionnaire items were found to have statistically signiﬁcant p-
values. As can be seen in Table 8, rhythm aptitude scores were predictive of response for
Attitude Item 18:

Students involved in a successful music program have less behavioral problems.
Tonal music aptitude scores were predictive of response for Attitude Item 2:

Students involved in a successful music program are more likely to succeed
academically.

103

Table 7

Pretest Questionnaire with AA/ﬂlxtA-Tonal and AA/ﬂl/lA-Rhythm as Predictors

 

Item Observations

Standard Error
Attitude

26.
Level of Comfort

WHQMPWP?‘

13
13
13
13
l3
l3
13
13
13
13
13
l3
13
13
13
13
13
13
l3
13
13
13
l3
l3
l3
l3

l3
l3
13
13
13
13
l3
13

Multiple R

.207
.656
.484
.405
.452
.173
.478
.362
.654
.485
.330
.053
.258
.115
.265
.303
.361
.717
.444
.272
.493
.398
.395
.369
.342
.238

.159
.513
.239

.312
.448
.356
.356
.479

R Square

.043
.430
.235
.164
.204
.030
.228
.131
.427
.235
.109
.003
.066
.013
.070
.092
.130
.513
.197
.074
.243
.158
.156
.137
.117
.057

.025
.263
.057
.098
.201
.127
.127
.229

Adjusted R Square

.316
.082

.045
.074

.313
.822

.416
.037

.091

.557

.623
.769
.709
.837
.556
1.494
.523
.623
.907
.722
1.297
.827

.793

.482
.567
.675
.778
.483
1.128
.489
1.062
1.117

1.116

.808
.687
1.092
.742
.742
1. 168

 

104

Table 8

AM/lA-Tonal and AAM-Rhythm Predictors of Pretest Questionnaire Items

 

 

Item Coefﬁcient Std. Error t-value p-value
2--Attitude

(Rhythm) . 108 .049 2.225 .05
1 8--Attitude

(Tonal) .124 .039 3.223 .01

 

Results and Discussion

From these results, tonal aptitude appears to be predictive of the pretest statement
that involvement in a successful music program leads to academic success and rhythm
aptitude appears to be predictive of the pretest statement that involvement in successﬁrl
music programs leads to less behavioral problems. However, that AMMA was found to be
predictive of only two of 34 items is an indication that these results may have been found
by chance and the possibility of a Type I Error exists. The overwhelming negative
student response raises further questions regarding the validity of the students’ test

scores and therefore Alva/L4 ’s use as a criterion measure.

Self-Rating of Musical Ability, Self-Rating of Musical Ability as Compared to Peers in
the Course. Past Music Experience in an Ensemble. and Years of Formal Instruction as

Predictors of Pretest (bestionnaire Items

To determine whether the self-rating of musical ability, self-rating of musical
ability as compared to peers in the course, past music experience in an ensemble, and
years of formal instruction function as predictors of attitude or level of comfort as
measured by the pretest questionnaire, multiple regression analysis was performed.
Pretest questionnaire items functioned as dependent variables with the self-rating of

musical ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course, past

105

music experience in an ensemble, and years of formal instruction ﬁrnctioning as
independent variables.

The number of observations, multiple R, R square, adjusted R square, and
standard error of measurement are presented in Table 9. Eight pretest questionnaire items
were found to share the highest common variance with the independent variables of past
music experience in an ensemble, self-rating of musical ability and self-rating of musical
ability as compared to peers. However, only three questionnaire items had factors loading
into the regression analysis with p-values beyond the p<.05 level of conﬁdence. Table 10
presents the coefﬁcients, standard error of measurement, t-values and p—values for those
questionnaire items found to have statistical signiﬁcance. Eight pretest questionnaire
items were found to share the highest common variance with self-rating of musical
ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course, past music
experience in an ensemble, and years of formal instruction. Only three questionnaire

items were found to have statistically signiﬁcant p-values (see Table 10).

106

Table 9

Pretest Questionnaire with Past Music Experience in an Ensemble, Past Music
Experience with Formal Instruction, Self-Rating of Musical Ability, and Self-Rating of
Musical Ability as Compared to Peers as Predictors

 

Item Observation Multiple R R Square Adj. R Square Std Error

 

Attitude

I. 15 .259 .067 -—- .509
2. 15 .603 .364 .109 .663
3. 15 .429 .184 -- .677
4. 15 .656 .429 .201 .714
5. 15 .672 .452 .233 .592
6. 15 .665 .442 .219 .732
7. 15 .792 .628 .479 .428
8. 15 .321 .103 -- 1.519
9. 15 .570 .326 .056 .577
10. 15 .479 .230. -- .664
ll. 15 .618 .382 .134 .838
12. 15 .517 .267 --- .648
13. 15 .383 .146 -- 1.27
14. 15 .592 .350 .090 .709
15. 15 .487 .237 --- .826
16. 15 .380 .145 --- .827
17. 15 .413 .171 --- .690
18. 15 .526 .276 --- .708
19. 15 .617 .381 .133 .498
20. 15 .524 .275 -- .659
21. 15 .445 .198 -- .801
22. 15 .596 .355 .097 .435
23. 15 .536 .287. .002 1.054
24. 15 .619 .384 .137 .425
25. 15 .657 .434 .207 .856
26. 15 .611 .373 .123 .980
Level of Comfort

1. 15 .617 .381 .133 .987
2. 15 .574 .323 .061 .791
3. 15 .350 .122 --- .886
4. 15 .706 .499 .298 .617
5. 15 .681 .463 .249 .894
6. 15 .196 .039 --- 1.025
7. 15 .196 .039 --- 1.025
_8._ 15 .781 .612 .455 .911

 

107

Table 10

Pretest Questionnaire Items with Past Music Experience in an Ensemble, and Self-Rating
of Musical Ability as Predictors

 

 

Item Coefficient Std. Error t-value p-value
6--Attitude

(Self-Rating) -.847 .325 2.61 .03
25-—Attitude

(Years-Ensemble) -.224 .091 2.44 .04
4—Comfort

(Years-Ensemble) . 165 .066 2.5 1 .03

 

As shown in the above table, the self-rating of musical ability was predictive of Attitude
Item 6:

An hour of music instruction by a music specialist is enough to ﬁll musical needs
of students.

Years of participating in an ensemble was predictive of Attitude Item 25 and Level-of-
Comfort Item 4:

Classroom teachers need an awareness of how children develop musically (Item
25--Attitude).

Comfort with playing musical games with students (Item 4—Level-of Comfort).
Results and Discussion
From these results, it appears that the higher the students rated their musical
ability, the more strongly they disagreed with the pretest statement that an hour of
instruction is enough to ﬁll children’s musical needs. In addition, from the above results
it appears that, the more time preservice teachers spent participating in an ensemble, the
more the strongly they agreed with the pretest statement that classroom teachers

need an awareness of how children develop musically. Also, it appears that the

108

more time students participated in an ensemble, the more comfortable they felt, at the
beginning of the semester, toward playing musical games with children. Three of 34
items that were found to be signiﬁcantly predicted, which is an indication that these
results may have been found by chance as a result of a Type 1 Error.
AM a; Predictor of Cha_nge of Attitude or Level-of Comfort

Multiple regression analysis was used to determine whether music aptitude
functions as a predictor of change of gains between pretest and posttest attitude,
or level of comfort questionnaire items. The difference between items ﬁrnctioned as
dependent variables, with AMMA-Tonal and AMM-Rhythm scores functioning as
independent variables. Two students were absent the day AM was administered;
therefore their posttest questionnaire scores were omitted from the analysis. The results
are presented in Table l 1. One change in attitude and level of comfort questionnaire item
was found to share the highest common variance with AM. The factors for this item
were found to have p—values beyond the p<.05 level of conﬁdence. The coefﬁcients,
standard error of measurement, t-values and p values for this item are presented in Table

12.

109

 

Table l 1

Change of Attitude and Level of Comfort with Alma-Tonal and AWA -Rhythm as
Predictors

 

 

 

Item Observations Multiple R R Square Adj. R Square Std Error
Attitude
l. 13 .552 .304 .165 .576
13 .533 .285 .141 .712
3 13 .478 .228 .074 .607
4 13 .372 .138 --- .737
5. 13 .045 .002 --- .568
6. 13 .234 .055 ---- 1.051
7 13 .718 .516 .419 .850
8 13 .331 .110 --- 1.552
9. 13 .230 .053 --- .828
10. 13 .313 .098 --- .623
11. 13 .346 .120 --- .745
12. 13 .348 .121 —-- 1.078
13. 13 .229 .052 --- 1.454
14. 13 .326 .107 -— .673
15. 13 .591 .350 .220 .640
16. 13 .266 .071 ~— .820
17. 13 .289 .084 ~— .628
18. 13 .549 .301 .162 .748
19. 13 .019 --- ~— .690
20. 13 .406 .165 --- .507
21. 13 .329 .108 —-- .652
22. 13 .385 .148 --- .606
23. 13 .281 .079 ~— 1.166
24. 13 .457 .209 .050 .840
25. 13 .572 .327 .193 1.007
26. 13 .253 .064 ~— .906
Level of Comfort
1. 13 .212 .045 ---- .804
2. 13 .375 .141 -— .891
3. 13 .430 .191 .030 .842
4. 13 .592 .351 .221 .490
5. 13 .413 .170 .004 .853
6. 13 .315 .099 ~— .999
7. 13 .528 .279 .134 .675
8. 13 .216 .047 --- 1.522

 

110

Table 12

Am/lA-Tonal and AAM-Rhythm as Predictors of Attitude Change

 

 

Item Coefﬁcient Std. Error t-value p-value
7—Attitude

(Tonal) . 159 .068 2.345 .04
7—Attitude

(Rhythm) -.208 .069 -3.008 .13

 

Table 12 demonstrates that the independent variables of AAM-Tonal and AW-
Rhythm were found to be predictive of positive change of attitude for Item 7:

When one has a basic knowledge of music fundamentals music can be better
appreciated.

Results and Discussion
From these results it appears that students with higher levels of tonal and rhythm
music aptitude, as measured by AM, may feel more strongly that music is better
appreciated when one has a basic knowledge of music ﬁrndamentals. However, of thirty-
four questionnaire items, only one was found to have statistical signiﬁcance. It is likely

that this result happened by because of a Type I Error.

Past Music Experience in an Ensemble, Past Music Experience with Formal Instructiga,

Self-Rating of Musical Ability, and Self-Rating of Musical Abilig as Compared to Peers
as Predictors of Change of Attitude or Level of Comfort

To determine whether the self-rating of musical ability, self-rating of musical
ability as compared to peers in the course, past music experience in an ensemble, and
years of formal instruction ﬁrnction as predictors of change in attitude, or level of
comfort, multiple regression analysis was performed. The difference posttest and pretest

questionnaire items functioned as dependent variables with the self-rating of musical

111

ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course, past music
experience in an ensemble, and years of formal instruction ﬁrnctioning as independent
variables (see Table 13).

Table 13

Change of Attitude and Level of Comfort with Past Music Experience in an Ensemble,

Past Music Experience with Formal Instruction, Self-Rating of Musical Ability, and Self-
Rating of Musical Ability as Compared to Peers as Predictors

 

 

Item Observations Multiple R R Square Adj. R Square Std Error
Attitude

1. 15 .291 .085 --- .672
2. 15 .431 .186 ---- .773
3. 15 .332 .110 .028 .689
4. 15 .334 .112 -- .754
5. 15 .556 .309 .033 .622
6. 15 .518 .268 --- 1.003
7. 15 .315 .100 -—-- 1.200
8. 15 .409 .167 -- 1.509
9. 15 .237 .056 --- .854
10. 15 .383 .147 -- .613
11. 15 .488 .238 -—- .913
12. 15 .399 .159 -- 1.136
13. 15 .602 .363 .108 1.220
14. 15 .664 .441 .218 .546
15. 15 .507 .257 -- .718
16. 15 .747 .557 .380 .585
17. 15 .336 .113 ~— .625
18. 15 .348 .121 -- .983
19. 15 .428 .183 ~— .660
20. 15 .742 .551 .371 .387
21. 15 .467 .218 —-- .621
22. 15 .275 .076 —-- .675
23. 15 .674 .454 .236 .903
24. 15 .530 .281 --- .801
25. 15 .508 .258 —-- 1.081
26. 15 .456 .208 --- .964
Level of Comfort

1. 15 .328 .105 --- .814
2. 15 .608 .370 .118 .845
3. 15 .558 .312 .037 .801
4. 15 .495 .245 --- .576
5. 15 .694 .482 .274 .680
6. 15 .355 .126 -- 1.168
7. 15 .429 .184 --—- .828
8. 15 .792 .627 .477 1.010

 

112

Twenty change of attitude and level of comfort questionnaire items were found to share
the highest common variance with past music experience in an ensemble, self-rating of
musical ability, and self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in the course. Five
of those items were found to have acceptable p-values. Table 14 presents the coefﬁcients,
standard error of measurement, t-values, and p-values of those items found to be
statistically signiﬁcant.

Table 14
Change of Attitude and Level of Comfort with Past Music Experience in an Ensemble,

Self-Rating of Musical Ability, and Self-Rating of Musical Ability as Compared to Peers
as Predictors

 

 

Item Coefficient Std. Error t-value p-value
16--Attitude

(Self-Compared) -.522 .161 3.427 .006
20—Attitude

(Self-Rating) .430 . 172 2.499 .03 1
23-Attitude

(Self-Compared) -.557 .249 2.238 .049
8--Comfort

(Years-Ensemble) .344 . 151 2.283 .045
8--Comfort

(Self-Compared) -.936 .278 3.364 .007

 

From the above table it can be seen that the independent variable “self-rating of musical
ability in comparison with peers” was found to be predictive of positive change in
attitude for Items 16 and 23, and for level of comfort Item 8:

Public Schools should be responsible for mainly academic education, not
aesthetic education (Item l6—Attitude).

113

I would like to teach music in my own classroom (Item 23—Attitude).

Comfort for teaching music class at the elementary level (Item 8—Level of
Comfort).

The independent variable of “self-rating of musical ability” was found to be predictive of
of change in attitude for Item 20:

Participating in musical activities outside of the school day serves an important
social and cultural ﬁrnction.

The independent variable of “years in an ensemble” was found to be predictive of change
of level of comfort Item 8:

Comfort for teaching music at the elementary level.

Results and Discussion

The higher preservice educators rated themselves musically in comparison to their
peers, the more strongly they disagreed that public schools should be more concerned
with academic education over aesthetic education and the more they agreed that they
would like to teach music in their own classrooms. The higher the preservice educators
rated themselves musically, the more agreement they had with the statement of music
being important socially and culturally. The more highly students viewed themselves in
comparison with their peers, the more comfort they felt toward teaching music at the
elementary level, and the more years of ensemble experience they had, the more comfort
they felt toward teaching music at the elementary level. Of thirty-four items only ﬁve
were found to have statistical signiﬁcance. Subsequently, the possibility of a Type I Error

exists in these results.

114

 

Chapter V
Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations
Summm

This study was conducted with the purpose of improving music methods
instruction for preservice elementary educators. More speciﬁcally, this study was
concerned with how preservice elementary educators responded to various instructional
strategies and assignments of a particular music methods course and if the course
curriculum design and implementation would impact the attitudes and comfort levels of
preservice elementary educators for music and teaching music. This investigation also
explored whether preservice elementary educators’ attitudes and comfort levels for
music and music instruction changed at the end of a semester of participation in a
particular music methods course. Finally, this study was concerned with whether music
aptitude, self-rating of music ability, self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers in
the course, past music experience in an ensemble, or formal instruction function as
predictors of preservice elementary educators’ attitudes or comfort level.

The present study involved the teacher-researcher and 15 college-aged students
enrolled in a required music methods course for non-music majors at a mid-sized public
university located in a rnidwestern state of the United States. The university is located in
a metropolitan area and is racially and socio-economically diverse. Classes met twice
weekly for 50 minutes. The length of the study was 15 weeks.

All students (N=15) were given the assignment to e-mail weekly journal entries to
the teacher-researcher. In addition, the teacher-researcher maintained a weekly reﬂective

journal. Student journals, the teacher-researcher’s journal, and course documents were

115

analyzed through content analysis and were further coded and categorized in relationship
to research questions to determine whether a particular course design has an impact

on attitude and level of comfort regarding music education and how preservice
elementary educators responded to various instructional strategies and assignments of the
music methods course. Methods and data were triangulated to strengthen validity of the
ﬁndings.

All of the students completed the pretest and posttest music teaching
questionnaire that was designed to gather data concerning attitude and level of comfort
for music and teaching music. Only 13 students completed AMMA, which was used to
measure stabilized music aptitude, due to two students being absent the day the test was
administered. Paired comparison t-tests were performed on pretest and posttest
questionnaire data to determine whether change in attitude or level of comfort occurred
for music teaching. Multiple regression analyses were performed to determine whether
years of past formal instruction, years of participation in an ensemble, self-rating of
musical ability, and self-rating of musical ability as compared to peers ﬁrnction as
predictors of pretest and posttest questionnaire items.

Results and Conclusions

Caution is warranted against generalizing the results and conclusions of this
study. All courses are unique; class periods within a course are also unique events in time
and cannot be replicated. Due to the small sample size and because the teacher-researcher
conducted this study from a moderate interpretive perspective, assuming the role of
participant-observer, the conclusions of this study are only relative to the participants and

context that was under investigation and the perspective from which they stem. However,

116

this examination of instructional practice within a particular methods course holds the
possibility of serving the music education profession by further informing the practice of
teaching music methods to preservice elementary educators. In many respects, this is a
case study of one particular music methods course and, while the results of this study
may not be generalizable, they may be transferable to other similar educational settings.
Predictors of AttitudL and Level of Comfort

From the results of this study, it cannot be concluded that attitude, level-of-
comfort at the beginning of the semester, change in attitude, or change in level of comfort
is predicted by music aptitude, self-rating of musicianship, self-rating of musicianship in
comparison to peers, years of formal instruction, or years of performing in an ensemble.
For music aptitude, AW reliabilities were found to be moderate, and students felt
ﬁustrated throughout the administration of the test. This raises concern about the validity
of Alva/[A scores and any statistical procedures within this study that used AMJA scores.
The variables of music aptitude, self-rating of musicianship, self-rating of musicianship
in comparison to peers, years of formal instruction, and years of performing in an
ensemble were found to predict very few questionnaire items. Because there were so few
items that were signiﬁcantly predicted, it is likely that some of those ﬁndings occurred by
chance.
Attitudes Toward Music and Music Inatauction

At the end of the semester, students had stronger beliefs regarding the extra-
musical beneﬁts of music instruction. They believed that participation in music activities
inside and outside of school is important socially and culturally and that music instruction

leads to better academic performance. In addition, the preservice elementary educators

117

 

valued being open-minded to different types of music and felt more strongly that a great
deal of knowledge is not prerequisite to appreciating music. Greater advocacy for music
instruction may be a by-product of appreciating music and believing that music education
has extra-musical beneﬁts.

By the end of the semester, students believed more strongly that music is an
important aspect of the school curriculum and that music should not be eliminated due to
ﬁnancial constraints. They also believed that music specialists were a necessity to deliver
music instruction. The preservice educators in Lewis’ (1991) study were also found to
recognize the need for a music specialist. Preservice elementary educators also felt more
strongly, at the end of the semester, that they would like to teach music in their
classrooms and viewed being aware of the musical development of children, and how to
teach music at different musically developmental levels as important for classroom
teachers to know. However, at the beginning and end of the course, they were only
slightly comfortable with the prospect of assuming the role of elementary general music
teacher. This may be an indicator that the preservice teachers will play a more supportive
role in the music education of their students. Lewis also came to this conclusion (1991).
Comfort with Teaching Music

The preservice elementary educators felt more comfort with teaching music as a
result of this methods class. Comfort levels increased for discussing musical concepts,
playing rhythm instruments, singing with children, using listening activities, and using
musically creative activities. A high level of comfort for using movement activities and
playing musical games was retained throughout the semester’s duration. Hagen (2002)

found that, when preservice teachers are comfortable teaching one activity, they tend to

118

 

be more comfortable with all of them. In addition, having a higher level of comfort for
teaching music increases the likelihood that they will implement these activities when
they are inservice educators (Barry, 1992).

Even though the preservice educators felt more comfortable teaching individual
music activities, they did not feel comfortable teaching elementary general music. This
may be because they realize what a music education curriculum entails, and that
obtaining knowledge of how to implement such a curriculum would take longer than a
semester-long methods course. Perhaps the preservice teachers felt themselves to be
musically inadequate as music educators; however, self-perception of the preservice
teachers’ level of musicianship signiﬁcantly increased over the semester.

Comfort and Instructional Straaggiag

The instructional strategies used within the course probably had impact on the
resulting comfort students felt with teaching music at the end of the semester. Structuring
singing experiences for success alleviated fears of singing in front of the entire class and
contributed to higher comfort levels for the use of singing (Austin, 2000; Kvet &
Watkins, 1993; Reifstack, 1980). In addition, engaging the preservice educators in
activities in a similar fashion to teaching children provided students with opportunities to
develop conﬁdence and comfort with teaching music. The sequence of the teacher-
researcher presenting material through modeling and demonstration or through discussion
techniques such as “write and talk,” students creating their own activities, peer teaching
their activities, and observing general music classes may have had a bearing on the raised
comfort levels of the preservice educators for teaching music. Peer teaching has been

found to raise conﬁdence levels for teaching music (Kvet & Watkins, 1993; Reifstack,

119

1980), and higher conﬁdence levels may be associated with higher comfort levels for
teaching musical activities (Barry, 1992).
Perception of Musiciathip

The preservice elementary educators’ perception of their musical ability increased
over the semester. Coming into the course, preservice elementary educators viewed
themselves as being musically inadequate. Because the musical backgrounds of students
who enroll in this course are so diverse, the curriculum was structured so that many of the
weekly themes could be used by future classroom teachers regardless of their level of
musicianship. Peer teaching, successful music teaching experiences and opportunities to
develop personal musicianship skills probably had an impact on the preservice teachers’
self-view of musicianship (Kvet & Watkins, 1993; Reifstack, 1980).

The majority of students began the music methods course with an outlook
toward their future as elementary educators and ﬁnished the course feeling that they
had improved their level of musicianship, that they had learned a good deal about music
and music education, and that they could see the relationship between what was learned
in class and the ﬁrture practical application as inservice classroom teachers. The design
and implementation of the methods course and the use of instructional strategies such as
modeling-demonstration, creating activities, and peer teaching those activities appeared
to result in preservice educators’ having positive attitudes and higher comfort levels
for music and teaching music.

Ianpli_cation§ for Music Education
Below are implications for music education based on the results and conclusions

of this research study.

120

Music methods courses for non-music majors that are designed with an
experience-orientation using a variety of teaching techniques, may yield the best results
for student learning. When preservice elementary educators experience music education
through a variety of experience-oriented techniques, they develop more of an
understanding of what music education entails. In addition, the teaching sequence of the
instructor modeling and demonstrating how to conduct musical activities while preservice
educators experience the material as children would, then having preservice educators
create activities based on the lecture and modeling-demonstration, followed by peer
teaching those activities to the class or a small group, provides base experiences for
future classroom use of what was learned in the methods course.

The fears that preservice educators have regarding music methods courses,
especially the fear of singing in front of others, should be considered by music methods
instructors. By acknowledging student fears and adapting instruction to assist preservice
educators with developing self-conﬁdence in music, a higher level of comfort for
teaching music and the appropriate use of music in the elementary classroom is more
likely to result.

Providing preservice elementary educators with a positive music learning and
teaching environment assists in the development of positive attitudes and higher levels of
comfort for music and music teaching. When preservice educators have positive learning
and teaching experiences, they may feel more successﬁrl and have more conﬁdence in
their musical abilities. This may increase the likelihood that preservice educators will use
what was learned in the methods course when they become inservice teachers and

become greater advocates of music education in the schools as well.

121

The use of a questionnaire, such as the one from this study (see Appendix D),
administered at the beginning and at the end of the semester may serve to assist methods
instructors with monitoring the development of positive attitudes and higher levels of
comfort for music and music teaching within the methods course. In addition, having
preservice educators rate instructional techniques used throughout the course at the end of
the semester, either through a questionnaire or in the form of a checklist, might provide
methods instructors with valuable information on those instructional techniques that seem
to provide optimal learning experiences for preservice educators. Information from such
questionnaires may then be used to modify and hone instruction for future optimal
results. For ﬁrrther information on the effectiveness of instruction and to monitor student
learning, the use of electronic student journals for communication between the student
and methods instructor also may be of value to instructors.

Preservice educators typically are familiar with child development on many
levels. The topic of musical development within children should not be ignored within
the music methods course, as it is within their intellectual grasp. When methods
instructors address the musical development of children, a stronger case is built for the
need to use appropriate musical activities within the elementary classroom. Moreover, the
important role of the classroom teacher to a successful music education program should
be emphasized throughout the methods course. Classroom teachers are integral to the
development of positive attitudes toward music and music education within the children
they have in their classrooms.

Recommendation; for Future Regeargh

The following recommendations reﬂect the need for ﬁrrther research regarding the

122

structuring
educators.
Th1
regarding
attitudes a
in the furti
comfort le
variables I
instructor
curricula.
Jc
through 5
Speciﬁc t
more USE
and COm

larger sa

Conteim
claSS se

male st

regarcri

structuring of elementary general music methods courses for preservice elementary
educators.

The review of related literature revealed a need for studies to be conducted
regarding variables that may be used in the prediction of preservice education majors’
attitudes and comfort levels. Replication of this study with a larger sample will assist
in the further determination of variables that may be predictive of student attitudes and
comfort levels for music and teaching music. In tum, having an understanding of what
variables have an impact on particular attitudes and comfort levels will provide
instructors with valuable information that may be helpful for structuring course
curricula.

Journal submissions were not topic-related; therefore, information provided
through student journal submissions was limited. A replication of this study using
speciﬁc topics for students to reﬂect upon within their journal submissions may provide
more useful, descriptive information regarding preservice education students’ attitudes
and comfort levels for teaching music. In addition, the use of student journals with a
larger sample might provide insights that may be more generalizable.

The use of videotaping as a means for data collection would provide a deeper
contextual understanding. Replication of this study with the addition of the videotaping
class sessions might reveal additional descriptive information regarding attitudes, levels
of comfort, instructional strategies, and overall student response to the course design.

Replication of this study with a population that includes a larger proportion of
male students, or one that is more racially diverse, may provide important information

regarding different perspectives on attitude and comfort levels for teaching music, as

123

well as COl
Th1
learning F
with Child]
more valid
actual teac
Lo
educators
give insigl
are sustair
Re
Comfort q
informati4
informati
F

an impac
teaching.
the mUsi
'l

COUrse 5
develop
Withjn F

FUrther.

well as course design, instructional strategies, and assignments.

The use of peer teaching within the present study was valuable for student
learning. Future replication of this study in which students apply what they have learned
with children, rather than only with their peers, within a classroom context might result in
more valid information regarding to changes in attitude and levels of comfort for the
actual teaching of music to children.

Longitudinal research conducted on a population of preservice elementary
educators from the beginning of the methods course to the time of inservice teaching may
give insight into whether the effects of a methods course on attitude or level of comfort
are sustained, and whether the useﬁrlness and practicality of activities are long-standing.

Replication of this study with a re-administration of the attitude and level-of-
comfort questionnaire after students have inservice teaching experience may provide
information on the degree an attitude or level of comfort is sustained, and provide
information regarding the long-term effectiveness of the methods course.

Research is needed regarding whether prerequisite ﬁrndamentals courses have
an impact on the development of attitude and level of comfort for music and music
teaching, and if so, whether these attitudes and comfort levels remain or change during
the music methods course.

This study is concerned with improving instruction in the music methods
course for preservice elementary educators. Music methods courses should focus on
developing positive attitudes and higher comfort levels for music and music teaching
within preservice educators through experience-oriented instructional strategies.

Furthermore, music methods courses should concentrate on developing preservice

124

elemental
activities
embracin!
increase 1

their futu:

elementary educators’ levels of personal musicianship, and equipping them with musical
activities supported by an understanding of the musical development of children. By
embracing these course goals within the methods course, methods instructors will
increase the likelihood that preservice educators will appropriately implement music in

their ﬁrture classrooms.

125

 

APPENDICES

126

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APPENDIX A

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TITLE: THE IMPACT OF MUSIC METHOD INSTRUCTION ON PRESERVICE
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gnaternsktomehumanwbjectsmanexisudmnmepmcdwaspmbuslymm
approved.

lfwe'cenbeofhrnherassistance. [pleasecontactusat(517)355-21800rvlaemsllz
UCRIHSQmqudu. PIeesenotethatallUCRlI-ISIormsareIocetsdontheweh:
http:/Mwwmsuaduluserlucrlhs

Ashir Kumar. M. D.
UCRIl-ls Chair

AK: hr

003 Suzanne Burton
11251 Moscow Raod
Jonesville. MI 49250

127

APPENDIX B
Dear Student,

This letter is to request your participation in a study investigating music methods
for preservice elementary educators. Your participation will involve completing regular
course assignments which include: maintaining a weekly journal, taking the Advanced
Measures of Music Audiation music aptitude test, and ﬁlling out a questionnaire, at the
beginning and end of the semester, regarding your thoughts on music teaching and your
level of comfort for teaching music. Your permission is requested to use the data
obtained from your journal entries, the questionnaires and the Advanced Measures of
Music Audiation music aptitude test in a research study to investigate the impact of a
music methods course on preservice elementary educators. The results of this study have
implications for improving instruction in music methods courses for preservice
elementary educators.

Your privacy will be protected to the maximum extent allowable by law. All data
will be kept conﬁdential by removing any coding or identiﬁers after data analysis. By
signing and returning the bottom of this form you give your voluntary consent to
participate in this study. You may choose not to participate in this study at any time
without penalty, and your course grade will not be effected. Ifyou have any questions or
concerns regarding any aspect of this study, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank
you for your time and assistance.

Suzanne Burton
11251 Moscow Rd.
Jonesville, MI 49250

F or ﬁrrther information on the roles and rights as subjects of research, please contact:
Ashir Kumar, MD, Chair, University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects
at: 51 7.355. 2180

 

By signing this form I give my voluntary consent to participate in the above described
study. I may choose not to participate at any point of the study without any penalty
whatsoever.

Signature:

 

128

APPENDIX C

Music in Early Childhood

Course Goals:

1) To develop an understanding of the musical development of young
children and how to provide instruction to meet their musical needs.

2) To develop teaching skills, through ﬁeld observations and peer teaching,

that can be used to deliver appropriate music instruction to young
children.

3) To become familiar with appropriate music education materials for use

with young children, and use that material to develop sequentially
ordered lesson plans.

 

Course Obiectiveg:
1) To become comfortable singing and chanting in a variety of tonalities
and meters.

2) To create movement activities that are based upon the Laban effort
elements that can be used to: a) form a base for metrical and rhythmic
development; and b) develop stylistic understanding in young children.

3) To become knowledgeable of how the singing voice is developed.

4) To create listening activities that can be used to develop audiation in
young children.

5) To create activities that can be used to assist children in exiting tonal
and rhythm babble.

6) To observe and evaluate music teaching at the early childhood level.

7) To become knowledgeable of musical instruments and a variety of
manipulatives, and how to use them for teaching young children music.

8) To compile an organized notebook of materials, class notes, and hand
outs that will be useful as a resource for teaching young children music.

9) To develop personal musicianship skills necessary for teaching young
children music

Rguired Texts:

0 Music Hay. Valerio, Reynolds, Bolton, Taggart, & Gordon (GIA Publications,
1998)

129

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Course Calendar: (The instructor reserves the right to make changes.)
August 28/30

0 Course overview

0 Importance of Early Childhood Music

0 Musical development of the child

Reading: Music Play (Forward-p. 5)
“*Journal Entpy due September 3

September 4/6

Musical development of the child (continued)

The music environment—Informal Music Leaming/Instructional goals

0 Avenues of music learning

0 Pre-K-lz National Music Standards/Standards for Early Childhood Music

Reading: Music Play (pp. 5-11)
*"Joumal Entpy due September 10

September 11/13

0 The role of singing and chanting

0 Choosing songs and chants

0 Techniques & activities for teaching songs and chants informally

Reading: Music Play (pp. 12-15; 21)
***Journal Entry due September 17

Assignment: Prepare a song and a chant without words from Music Play, and be
ready to teach it to your small group, by memory, using an informal teaching
technique, on Tuesday, September 18. PASS/FAIL

September 18/20

Peer teach song/chant to small group

The role of movement

Sequential movement—Laban, bilateral, alternating
Techniques and activities for teaching movement
Rating scale for movement activities

Reading: Music Play (pp. 16-20)
*"Journal En due e ember 24

Assignment: Create a movement activity designed for young children focused on
each of the following: 1) Body Awareness; 2) Continuous Fluid Movement; 3) Heavy
Movement; 4) Light Movement: 5) Bound Movement; 6) Free Movement; 7) Fast
Movement; 8) Slow Movement; 9) Direct Movement; 10) Indirect Movement. You
will teach one of your activities. Bring a copy of your activity for everyone in your

130

small group. (I_)ue: Tuesday, September 25). Peer teaching: PASS/FAIL;
Assignment: Instructor graded.

September 25/27

0 Peer teach movement activity
0 Individualizing instruction
*"Journal Enti_'y due Octpber 1

Assignment: Prepare a song and a chant wiqut woﬂs from Music Play, and be
ready to teach it to your small group, by memory, using an informal teaching

technique. (Due: Tuesday, October 2). PASS/FAIL

October 2/4

0 Peer teach song/chant to small group

0 Individualizing instruction (continued)

0 Music aptitude

0 Music aptitude tests: Audie; PMMA; AMMA
Reading: Music Play (pp. 22-38; 39-40)

“*Journal Entpy dpe October 8

October 9/1 1
0 Music Babble—tonal and rhythm
0 Techniques and activities for exiting music babble

Assimment #1: Your small group will need to meet to decide on 5 questions to
submit for the Midterm exam review. These questions need to be of substantial
content. You will be evaluated by your peers according to your participation. One
person from your group will need to submit your questions, by e-mail, to me NO
LATER than l_2:00 PM, Wednesday, 53:er 17.

Assignment #2: Prepare a song and a chant (wprdgnp 12rd; pptipngl) from Music
Play, and be ready to teach it to your small group, by memory, using a music babble

exit technique. (Dpe: Thursday, October 18). PASS/FAIL
October l6—No Class—Fall Break

October 18
0 Peer teach song/chant to small group
0 Midterm exam review

October 23
o Midterm exam

October 25

0 Review Midterm Exam
0 The role of listening

131

0 Appropriate listening selections for children
0 Develop Rating Scale for listening selections

"*Journal Eng due October 29

Assignment: Prepare a list of 5 listening selections that you would use with young
children. List the composer and the recording information (Composer, performer,
recording company, catalog number, and date). State why you chose those

selections. (Due: Tuesday, October 30). Instructor graded.

October 30/November 1
0 Listening Maps and Call Charts
0 Rating scale for Call Chart

"*Journal Ent_ry due November 5

Assimment: Create a Listening Map for one of your listening selections, and a Call
Chart for another. Bring a copy of your Call Chart for everyone in your small

group. Be prepared to teach your Call Chart. (Dug: Tugggy, vaember 6), Peer
Teaching: PASS/FAIL; Assignment: Instructor graded.

November 6/8

0 Peer teach Call Chart

0 Developing an Informal Music Instruction lesson plan

0 Rating Scale for Informal Music Instruction lesson plan

"*Journal Entg due vaember 12

Assignment: With your small group, develop an Informal Music Instruction lesson
plan. Each activity of the plan should include: 1) speciﬁc musical skill(s) to be
developed; 2) instructional objectives; 3) procedure; 4) assessment strategies; 5)
materials list; 6) copies of materials used; and reference list. Bring a copy of your
plan for everyone in your small group. Be prepared to talk through your plan in

class. (Due: Tuesday, Novemmr 13).

November 13/15

0 Present Informal Music Learning Plans in class. Peer Teaching: PASS/FAIL;
Individual Participation within the group: Peer evaluation; Lesson Plan:
Instructor graded.

November 20
0 Teaching songs by rote—Aural/Oral Skill Level

Assignment: Prepare a song from Jump Right In, BK. 1, or another source. You
should be ready to teach this to your small group using Aural/Oral rote procedure.
(Due:Tuesday, Novemggr 27. This is to be done by memory. PASS/FAIL

November 22—No Class—Thanksgiving Break

132

 

 

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November 27/29

0 Peer teach song and chant by rote

0 Teaching songs by rote—Verbal Association

0 Movement: Coordination, Ensemble Movement, Circle, Line, Folk, and Formal
Dance

*"Journal Entry due December 3

Assignment: Using one song (approved by the instructor) from Music Play, Jump
Right In, or another source, create one lesson plan that ties that song in with an
academic subject area. Include: 1) Copies of all material to be used; 2) specific
musical skill(s) to be developed; 3) instructional objectives; 4) procedure; 5)
assessment strategies; 6) target grade level, 7) materials list; and 8) reference
information. Be sure to incorporate music learning techniques that have been
presented in class. You will have 1 lesson plan. Type this on a word processor and
bring copies for your small group. Be prepared to teach your plan. W

December 4).

NOTEBOOKS WITH OBSERVATION REPORTS n N BANK ARE DUE
DECEMBER 6.

December 4/6
0 Peer teach lesson plans
0 Playing instruments—readiness and techniques

***Journal Entpy due December 10

Assignment : Your small group will need to meet to decide on 5 questions to submit
for the Final exam review. These questions need to be of substantial content. You
will be evaluated by your peers according to your participation. One person from
your group will need to submit your questions, by e-mail, to me NO LATER than

12:00 PM, Monday, December 10.

December 11/13

0 Playing Instruments (continued)
0 Music Teaching Survey

0 Final Exam Review

"*Jo rn lEnt d m r 17

FINAL EXAM: N0 [WAKE-UPS. NO EXCEPTIONS

qurnal: Because this is a music course for non-music majors, I am very interested
in knowing how you are doing as we progress throughout the semester. Each week
you will e-mail a journal entry to me. The focus of the entries can be about that
week’s assignments, lectures, or activities. The focus might be on what you have
learned, or an “a-ha!” moment. Please be honest with your opinions, feelings,
questions, or concerns. The entries should be at least V2 page in length, however,

133

 

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there is no limit to the length of your entry. Entries are due before, or on the
following Monday. 10 entries (***= Journal Entry due)

Clgs Participation: Class participation is very important. We learn best from
interacting with one another through questioning, and then through applying, and
observing what we have discussed in a setting with actual children. I hope that
every student will be a willing participant.

Peer Teaching: Peer teaching is viewed as an integral part of this class, and
important in learning and practicing teaching techniques. Students should come
fully prepared to teach on peer teaching days.

Field Observation: 3 hours of observational ﬁeld experience are required for this
course. Professor Burton will provide a list of music educators that you may
observe. You must have the teacher’s signature after each observation. Also, record
the day, date and time of the observation. This information is to be turned in with

your notebook. There are up make—ups for missing a schedulgg obgrvation time.

Field Experience Remrts: Following each ﬁeld experience you will write up your
observations. There should be 3 reports approximately 2 pages long each. You will
be given speciﬁc directions regarding how to write them up before the ﬁrst
observation. All observations need to be typed and should be included in your
notebook.

SongZChant Bank: This is intended for your future classroom use. Include at least
10 songs and 5 chants that are appropriate for instruction. Information should be
recorded such as meter, tonality, singing range, what the text is about,
nationality/origin of the song, speciﬁc music concepts/skills that may be taught, and
possible integrated concepts that may be taught. This should be included in your
reference notebook.

Class N oteka; Your notebook should be organized for your future use, and will be
a reference guide for your teaching. It should contain a table of contents. Use
dividers to separate sections. Sections of the notebook could include: class notes,
singing and chanting techniques, movement, listening lists, listening maps and call
charts, lesson plans, exam questions, handouts, observation reports, and your bank
of songs and chants.

Evaluation:

Assignments 40%
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Observation Papers 10%
Class Notebook 10%

134

 

ﬁstula—mg

0 Attendance will be taken at every class. Two absences, for whatever reason, are
allowed. More than two absences will negatively affect your grade, and cause
your grade to go down one full letter grade for each class missed. You should
view yourself as a professional. You would not expect a professional to skip
work. I expect you to be in class.

Assignments:
0 Late papers and assignments will negatively affect your grade and cause your

grade to go down one full letter grade each day it is late.

0 Make-ups of class presentations, and peer teaching will not be allowed without
medical documentation, or a conference with Professor Burton.

0 All assignments are to be typed, double-spaced with a 10 or 12 point font such as
Times, Arial or Courier.

0 Correct grammar and spelling are very important.

Academic Honesg: Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in
failure of the course.

Please!!!! Schedule an appointment with me if you have any questions or concerns
about the course!

135

APPENDIX D
Music Teaching Survey

Name:

 

Please circle the number that best represents your response.

5=Strongly Agree; 4=Agree; 3=Unsure; =Disagree; 1=Strongly Disagree

 

 

1. It is necessary for music to be included in the school curriculum. 5 4 3 2 1

Students who are involved in a successﬁrl music program are more likely

to succeed in academic areas. 5 4 3 2 1
3. Participating in musical activities in school serves as an important social

and cultural ﬁmction. 5 4 3 2 l
4. Musical ability is hereditary. 5 4 3 2 l

5. Music is a frill, and therefore limits should be set on its role within the

school curriculum. 5 4 3 2 l
6. An hour per week of instruction by a music specialist is adequate to ﬁll the

basic musical needs of students. 5 4 3 2 1
7. When one has a basic knowledge of music fundamentals, music can be

better appreciated. 5 4 3 2 l
8. Every child should receive at least one hour of music instruction per week.

5 4 3 2 1

9. Music students tend to be more successful in academic courses as a result of

music instruction. 5 4 3 2 l
10. Open-mindedness to many different kinds of music is a worthy attribute.

5 4 3 2 1

11. School music teachers should be mostly concerned with developing good

attitudes toward music rather than with teaching music content. 5 4 3 2 1
12. Music should be considered one of the basic, or core subjects. 5 4 3 2 1
13. Appreciating music depends on knowing a great deal about it. 5 4 3 2 l
14. Music should be one of the ﬁrst programs cut during a ﬁnancial crisis. 5 4 3 2 l
15. Music is an inseparable part of my daily life. 5 4 3 2 l
16. Public schools should be responsible for mainly academic education, not

aesthetic education. 5 4 3 2 1
17. Music should be included in every elementary school curriculum. 5 4 3 2 l
18. Students who are involved in a successful music program are less likely to

have behavior problems in school. 5 4 3 2 l
19. Every school should have access to a school music specialist. 5 4 3 2 l
20. Participating in musical activities outside of the school day serves an

important social and cultural ﬁmction. 5 4 3 2 l
21. The classroom teacher should supplement the music instruction provided

by the music specialist by spending time on music during other times

in the week. 5 4 3 2
22. Music is a good way to teach other subjects. 5 4 3 2

136

23. I would like to teach music in my own classroom. 5 4 3 2 1
24. Fundamentals courses are helpful in preparing for music methods courses.
5 4 3 2 l
25. The classroom teacher should be aware of how children develop musically.
5 4 3 2 1
26. The classroom teacher should know how to teach music to children who are ,
at different musically-developmental levels. 5 4 3 2 1

Please circle the number that best represents your response.

5=Very Comfortable; 4=Moderately Comfortable; 3=Slightly Comfortable;
2=Uncomfortable; 1=Very Uncomfortable

 

 

1. How comfortable would you feel singing to or with children? 5 4 3 2 1
2. How comfortable would you feel teaching a music listening lesson
to children? 5 4 3 2 l
3. How comfortable would you feel moving to music with your children?
4. How comfortable would you feel playing musical games with your children?
5 4 3 2 1
5. How comfortable would you feel discussing musical concepts with your
children? 5 4 3 2 l
6. How comfortable would you feel playing rhythm instruments with your
children? 5 4 3 2 l
7. How comfortable would you feel using musically creative activities with your
children? 5 4 3 2 l
8. How comfortable would you feel teaching music class at the elementary
level? 5 4 3 2 1

Please answer below in the provided spaces.

1. How many years, if any, have you participated in a music ensemble?

 

What type(s)?

 

2. How many years, if any, have you had formal music lessons?

 

What instrument(s)?

 

3. Rate your level of musicianship:
(5=excellent; 4=very good; 3=good; 2=fair;1=poor)

4. Rate your level of musicianship compared to your peers in this class:
(5=excellent; 4=very good; 3=good; 2=fair;1=poor)

137

 

REFERENCES

138

 

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