Journal of Research in Music Education

In this article, we identified those studies that were cited most often in research articles published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Psychology of Music, the Journal of Music Therapy, Contributions to Music Education, and the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education between 1975 and 1990. Sampling was limited to citations within descriptive or experimental studies (N = 922) that were data-based. A content analysis of the 26 most cited studies was conducted, and the articles were classified according to populations studied and central variables used. Results indicated that primary dependent variable categories included music preference, student on-task/off-task behavior, perception and/or performance of tempo, vocal performance, pitch accuracy/intonation, melodic or rhythmic perception, teacher approval-disapproval behavior, student attitudes, and evaluation of teaching/instruction. The most frequent independent variables used across the 26 studies included musical stimulus characteristics (e.g., tempo, style), teacher behaviors (e.g., approval-disapproval, eye contact), instructional methods, and subject characteristics (e.g., grade level, training/experience).

Authorities agree that peer evaluation and self-evaluation can help improve teaching performance. Evaluation of applied music skills, however, remains heavily teacher-centered. In this investigation, I explored the efficacy of peer and self-evaluation of applied brass jury performances. In three episodes at two locations, university faculty members evaluated live brass jury performances using an author-constructed Brass Performance Rating Scale (BPRS). Also using the BPRS, students rated these same performances (one of which was theirs) on videotape. To control for adjudicators' prior knowledge of performers, a fourth panel of adjudicators unfamiliar with the performers evaluated one episodes performances. Interjudge reliability for faculty and peer evaluation panels generally was high, with total score correlations ranging from .83 to .89 (p < .01). Correlations among faculty and peer-group evaluations also were high, with total score r ranging from .86 to .91 (p < .01). Consonant with prior investigations, self-evaluation generally correlated poorly with faculty and peer evaluation. The effect of videotape seemed minimal; scoring discrepancies between live and videotaped performances were low. In this investigation, prior knowledge of performers did not seem to affect evaluations.

The purpose of this study was to investigate reported influences on middle school band students' instrument choices. A questionnaire was developed to gather information concerning students' instrumental music experience, family participation in instrumental music, and reported reasons for instrument choice and nonchoice. The sample (N = 990) consisted of sixth-, seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade band students from 13 middle schools in the Dade County (Florida) Public Schools. Results revealed strong gender/instrument associations, and students indicated that their instrument choices were most influenced by the instrument sound. Other reported influences included “people,” that is, middle school music teachers, parents, and friends. Although students did not indicate it directly, gender association with certain instruments seemed to override professed reasons for instrument selection.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of piano harmonic accompaniment on singing ability of kindergarten students during a year of music instruction. The study used a pretest-posttest control-group design with an additional posttest measure. Both the pretest and posttest were the individual rote-singing of “Pinto Pony,” a four-phrase song with a range from the D to the A above middle C. The additional posttest was Gordon's Primary Measures of Music Audiation (1979). Results showed that: (a) no significant differences existed in singing ability between the two groups of kindergartners who had accompaniment and no accompaniment during a year of instruction, and (b) no significant differences existed in the composite scores of the PMMA between the experimental and control group.

Three groups of undergraduate elementary/early-childhood education majors participated in a study designed to help examine the effect of task analysis on use of complete sequential patterns and sequential pattern components in teaching music. A complete sequential pattern was defined as one continuing academic presentation or academic-related question, the resulting student response, and general or specific feedback. Three different teaching strategies were used for the three groups, and each group taught six times. One group wrote a task analysis before all teaching experiences; a second group was instructed to write two task analyses as an exercise, unrelated to actual teaching; a third group had no task-analysis instruction. Posttest videotapes of 60 subjects were analyzed for time spent in each component as well as in complete sequences. Results indicated the task-analysis group had a significantly greater number of complete sequences. The task-analysis group also had significantly more time in student performance. No significant differences were shown for specific or general feedback.

This study was designed to investigate empirically the “aesthetic experience” as individually defined by each subject. Subjects (N = 30) were faculty members and advanced graduate students at a large university school of music. Each subject listened to a 20-minute excerpt from Act I of Puccini's La Bohème and simultaneously manipulated the dial of a Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) to indicate perceived aesthetic level. The CRDI dial represented a negative/positive continuum along a 256-degree arc. Data collected were charted graphically to indicate levels of aesthetic response across time. Subjects completed a questionnaire designed to estimate frequency, duration, location, and magnitude of perceived aesthetic experiences and also indicated whether dial manipulation roughly corresponded to these experiences.

Results indicated that there were different responses throughout the excerpt by all subjects. Heightened aesthetic responses were evident during certain parts of the excerpt. “Peak experiences” were relatively short (15 seconds or less in duration), preceded by a period of concentrated focus of attention, and generally followed by an “afterglow” ranging from 15 seconds to several minutes. All subjects reported having at least one aesthetic experience and also reported that movement of the CRDI dial roughly approximated this experience. “Aesthetic responses” for subjects seemed to cluster at many of the same places in the music, with one collective “peak” experience that was represented by the highest and lowest dial movements.

The purposes of this study were to (a) develop an instrument, using attribution theory models, to measure perceptions of elementary education majors related to success in teaching music; (b) determine those factors that elementary education majors believe contribute to success in teaching music; (c) determine the relative strength of each factor; and (d) compare the factors with traditional and music-related attribution theory models. A researcher-developed instrument directed 306 elementary education majors to rate the degree to which they believed positive attributes contribute to success in teaching music. A principal-factor analysis produced four factors, accounting for 53.13% of the total variance. Factor 1 (understanding and organizing for individual differences in children) and Factor 3 (proactive personality characteristics) were consistent with literature on teacher effectiveness. Factor 2 (musical ability and positive feelings for music) and Factor 4 (external factors affecting music teaching), however, were similar to traditional attributional models.