Teachers are considered professional voice users because they depend on the regular and uninterrupted use of the voice. The nature of teaching requires more extensive use of the voice than other professions. Therefore, teachers are faced with a greater risk of developing voice problems. In addition to using the voice to present content to students, teachers must also manage the classroom and student behavior. All of these activities have potential to compromise vocal integrity. The purpose of this study was to examine the vocal health of selected middle school and high school choral directors. Specifically, it explored relationships between vocal health condition as determined by the modified Voice Handicap Index (VHI) and self-report vocal health rating and (a) age, (b) gender, (c) years of teaching, (d) level of teaching, (e) vocal health education, and (f) fundamental frequency and intensity ranges of the voice as indicated by the voice range profile (VRP). This study also sought to determine the relationship between VRP, and age, gender, years of teaching, and level of teaching. Results indicate choral directors' vocal intensity range is significantly smaller than the trained and untrained populations, choral directors' minimum vocal intensity is significantly higher than the trained and untrained populations, and choral directors are able to produce significantly fewer semitones resulting in a smaller vocal frequency range than trained and untrained populations.

Dissertation (PhD) Florida State University, 2007. / Advisor: Kevin Fenton, Florida State University, College of Music. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed 8-29-2007). Document formatted into pages; contains 151 pages. Includes biographical sketch. Includes bibliographical references.

xvi, 132 p. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The revised Bloom's cognitive taxonomy classifies thinking into ways and kinds of knowing. The ways of knowing are remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. The kinds of knowing are factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive. Higher order thinking requires analysis, evaluation, or creation. It has been suggested that ensemble directors spend little time teaching higher order thinking and concepts. Rehearsals of six expert high school choral directors were audio-recorded at the beginning, middle and end stages of performance preparation. The directors' language was classified by type of activity. Language containing cognitive content was further categorized using the revised Bloom's taxonomy. The data were coded using audio annotation software developed by the author. The software enabled the user to hear the recorded audio, mark event locations, and add annotations. Annotations included transcribed text, coding, and comments. The software tracked event time and frequency and calculated event duration and word counts of transcribed text. Results found that student performance was 44% of rehearsal and teacher talk 47%. Teacher vocal modeling was 12% of rehearsal. Teacher talk percentages of rehearsals overall were 26% task presentation, 2.4% questioning, and 2.5% specific feedback. Cognitive content was split almost evenly between lower levels of thinking--recall, understand, apply--and higher levels--analyze, evaluate, create. Conceptual thinking occurred in 4.3% of rehearsal. Rehearsals were fast paced with average overall event durations of 6.3s. Several ways to define higher order thinking in the two-dimensional revised taxonomy are presented as are suggestions for challenging students to higher order thinking. The concept of a cognitive topography or cognitive signature is proposed as a key component for describing a director's teaching style and may have implications for teacher training and assessment. / Adviser: Harry E. Price