Journal of Research in Music Education

The distinguished music scholar Charles L. Seeger (1886–1979) viewed music education as playing a critical role in the development of American musical life. During his long career, he made an important contribution to the history, philosophy, and sociology of music education. The purpose of this study was to identify a primary aspect of Seeger's contribution by exploring one of his ongoing professional concerns— American music for American children. The study progresses from a profile of Seeger the music educator to his approach to music in American culture, his plan for revitalizing music in American education, and, finally, an appraisal of his criticisms and recommendations. Music in American education, he believed, would better serve American society if some vital connections with school music were activated or renewed. The writer identifies these as the child's own music, American vernacular music in general, other music professionals (and particularly musicologists), and the cultural-political context in which music and education function. Seeger played a significant role in introducing vernacular music into the schools, in extending the definition of American music in the curriculum, in presenting music as a cultural subject, and in assisting music educators in dealing with musical diversity in the classroom.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the contents of doctoral research written between 1936 and 1992 that related to string education. A search of the Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) index of dissertations revealed 252 dissertations concerning string education. These dissertation titles and abstracts were analyzed for year of completion, type of degree, instrument, and nine topic areas. Results indicated that the greatest numbers of string education dissertations were written in the 1970s; the Ph.D. was awarded more often than other degrees; violin was researched more than viola, cello, and double bass combined; and the topic areas addressed most often were techniques and skills, performance practice, and information resources. It was suggested that increased doctoral research be done in the areas of string teacher education, string program evaluation, viola, and double bass.

In this investigation of the effects of field dependence-independence (FDI), general mental ability, previous music experience, and gender on music listening, 148 students enrolled in a college introductory music class recorded observations about eight music excerpts. After 1 week and again after 2 weeks, subjects used their observations to identify the excerpts. A series of multiple-regression analyses was used to examine the unique contributions of the four subject variable sets to the explanation of variance in excerpt identification (EI) scores. The regression of all sets accounted for 30.9% of the variance in EI scores. FDI, as measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), uniquely accounted for 9.1% of the variance in EI scores. General mental ability, as measured by the ACT, uniquely accounted for 6.3% of the variance in EI scores. Experience and gender each explained less than 1 % of the unique variance.

This study examined 120 secondary school choral students' perceptions of teacher feedback behaviors as a function of students' attributions of success in vocal music, grade level, and gender. Subjects rated 29 audiotaped excerpts of applied vocal instruction that featured teacher approval or disapproval behaviors. The tape presented four excerpts each for approval-improvement, approval-information, approval-control, person-praise, personal approval, norm-referenced approval, and five excerpts of disapproval. Subjects rated excerpts using four 7-point scales: good-bad, effective-ineffective, sincere-insincere, and appropriate-inappropriate. Subjects provided information concerning their attributions of success in vocal music. Responses were coded as internal-stable (ability), internal-unstable (effort), external-stable (task difficulty), and external-unstable (luck). Results indicated that (a) frequencies for students' internal-unstable and internal-stable attributions were greater than frequencies for external (stable or unstable) attributions; (b) students' attributions of success and failure were generally consistent; (c) attributions did not differ significantly by grade level or gender; (d) significant within-subjects differences were found across the approval categories with approval-improvement receiving the highest mean rating and norm-referenced approval receiving the lowest mean rating; (e) females rated approval-improvement, approval-control, person-praise, and personal approvals significantly higher than did males; (f) male subjects rated disapproval behaviors significantly higher than did females; and (g) perception of teacher feedback behaviors did not differ significantly according to students' internal/external attributions or grade level.

The purpose of this study was to determine: (a) whether any significant differences existed within university music educators' responses to each of 16 activities, identified previously to be “recognized” off campus activities, in the categories of frequency of performance, effectiveness in helping keep them up-to-date with public school settings, and perceived importance of each activity in tenure/promotion decisions, (b) whether any significant differences existed between university music educators' responses in these evaluation categories (frequency, effectiveness, and importance) according to the perceived role and expectation of the different institutions, (c) how often university music educators performed each of 16 activities, (d) how effective university music educators thought each of the 16 activities would be in keeping them up-to-date with public school settings, (e) the university music educators' perception of the importance of each activity in tenure/promotion decisions, and (f) whether university music educators' responses to the perceived effectiveness of the 16 activities differed from previously obtained responses of public school music educators. From analyses, it was found that significant differences existed within and between university music educators' responses by category, between university music educators' responses by institutional role and expectation, and between effectiveness rankings of public school and university music educators.