The Effect of Observation Focus on Evaluations of Choral Rehearsal Excerpts

Abstract

Seven rehearsal excerpts demonstrating research-identified teaching characteristics were presented to university music majors (N = 176) for ratings. Subjects watched either a videotape focused on the teacher or another focused on students. Numerical ratings from 1 to 10 were assigned by subjects to 10 categories of student and teacher behavior: time use, musicianship, accuracy of presentation, student attentiveness, student performance quality, enthusiasm, intensity, pacing, personality, and overall effectiveness. Results demonstrated that subjects gave their highest ratings when viewing the teacher and lowest ratings when viewing students. The highest-rated excerpt contained a hw percentage of student off-task behavior (6.53%), a high percentage of approvals (71%), moderate eye contact (2730%), many activity changes (27), a high percentage of student response time (66%), and rapid pacing, as indicated by an average length of both teacher and student activities of 5-6 seconds.

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