Journal of Research in Music Education

Basing this study on teachers' perceptions of their own teaching, I identified teaching styles in secondary choral music and developed a self-report scale to assess choral music teaching style. Ten dimensions of choral music teaching style were identified through common factor analysis of 134 teaching behaviors. Eight of these dimensions were validated through confirmatory factor analysis. The dimensions were labeled Student Independence, Teacher Authority, Positive Learning Environment, Aesthetic Music Performance, Nonverbal Motivation, Time Efficiency, Group Dynamics, and Music Concept Learning. Test-retest reliability of the subscales that were used to assess the eight validated dimensions indicated acceptable consistency over time. Eleven choral music teaching styles were identified through k-means cluster analysis of directors, based on their scores on the dimensions. Clusters of directors from two samples were cross-validated with discriminant analysis. The teaching styles were labeled Student-Centered Comprehensive Musicianship Oriented, Teacher-Controlled Comprehensive Musicianship Oriented, Student/Subject Matter Interaction Oriented, Task Oriented, Music Performance Oriented, Cooperative Learning Oriented, Concept Presentation Oriented, Content Oriented, Low Teacher Involvement Oriented, Discovery Oriented, and Nonfocused Low-Interaction Oriented.

This study's purpose was to examine the effects of black and white listeners' and performers' race on music preferences. On a Likert-type rating scale, middle-school (n = 102) and university (n =119) listeners indicated how much they liked or disliked 20 taped music examples. On a second rating scale, the listeners selected a point closest to the racial identifier that they believed described the performer's race. A second measurement examined the participants' attitudes toward social encounters with blacks and whites.

Only the black listeners showed statistically significant differences in their music preferences for white and black performers (p < .01). These listeners gave stronger preference ratings when they identified the performer's race as black. White listeners' preference ratings, however, were virtually equal for the black and white performers. On the social-encounter measurement, both black and white respondents provided more positive responses to statements of encounters with members of their own race than with the other racial group.

An analysis of gender-related references appearing in the Music Supervisors' Journal (MSJ) from 1914 through 1924 revealed that both coeducational and single-sex musical organizations abounded and that vocal and instrumental instruction for boys and girls was advocated. When one sex or the other was singled out for consideration, however, the spotlight usually was focused on males. In addition to the “missing males” problem, writers in the MSJ discussed the role of music in the education of boys, career opportunities in music for males, the relationship of music to the nature and character development of boys, boys' musical likes and dislikes, the male singing voice, and music for the man at war. By contrast, little attention was devoted exclusively to females, their interests, or their problems. This analysis invites reflection on whether gender issues pertaining to females continue to be overlooked by the music education profession today.

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of elementary music students toward singing and choir participation in relation to grade level and gender, classroom singing activities, previous and current out-of-school singing experiences, and degree of singing skill, both self-perceived and assessed. Data were obtained from 542 third- through sixth-grade children from responses to a questionnaire and from taped singing performances. Cross-tabulations of response data showed that most subjects indicated a positive attitude toward singing, but less than half were interested in choral singing. Girls, younger students, those who liked to sing, and those who wanted to sing in a choir generally responded more positively to most questionnaire items. Fourth and fifth graders had higher scores on one aspect of singing accuracy, but no other significant differences were found between singing skill and other variables in the study.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of sequential patterns on evaluations by high school and elementary students of teaching in rehearsal. Subjects (N − 536) evaluated a high school choral music director conducting a scripted rehearsal containing 10 sequential patterns of instruction identified in previous research. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four presentations of the taped rehearsal: (1) audio and video; (2) audio only; (3) video only; or (4) script only. Results demonstrated that students rated presentations of script only and audio-video higher; presentations of audio or video only produced lower evaluations, as well as comments indicating frustration in deciding evaluation scores. In addition, patterns beginning with musical information were graded higher than those beginning with directions, those ending in approvals were graded higher than those ending in disapprovals, and those ending in specific reinforcement were graded higher than those ending in nonspecific reinforcement.