Effect of Selected Recruiting Strategies on Beginning Instrumentalists' Participation Decisions

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the effect of aptitude, two methods of introducing wind and string instruments, and the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on fourth-grade students' attitude toward playing an instrument. Students (N = 531) in nine different elementary schools were divided into two experimental groups (recorder and demonstration) and a control group. Students in the recorder group were taught to play the recorder, whereas the demonstration group encountered the instruments via films and live student performances. After 10 weeks of instruction, students completed an attitude assessment questionnaire. When low aptitude/attitude correlations were found, ANCOVA procedures were abandoned, and ANOVA procedures revealed a statistically significant interaction among the three groups and three SES levels. Simple main effects analyses indicated that the type of recruiting strategy does not significantly affect low-SES stuents' attitudes, but significant differences in both the middle- and high-SES classifications were examined using the Tukey-Kramer test.

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