This mixed methods study examines the lived experiences of six female high school band directors in the state of Florida as they related to the perceptions of the professional band association membership. This research focuses on how women and men perceive their experiences in relation to gender roles and gender-stereotyping in the traditionally masculine field of secondary instrumental music. A quantitative survey was distributed to the professional band association membership and 99 responses were recorded. Participants answered questions regarding years of teaching experience, grade levels taught, primary instrument, and their thoughts on the impact of gender on several aspects of instrumental music education. The survey results revealed that women feel strongly about the impact that gender has on instrument selection, performance opportunities, and job opportunities while men remain largely neutral. Out of the 99 responses, 6 participants that met the criteria for the qualitative interview portion of the study were contacted to arrange interviews / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Equality of condition (Lynch & Baker, 2005) is “the belief that people should be as equal as possible in relation to the central conditions of their lives” (p. 132). Those who strive for equality of condition aim to equalize people’s options in a given situation. In education, inequality may result when teachers assess their students without considering equality of condition's five dimensions: resources; respect and recognition; love, care and solidarity; power; and working and learning. The purpose of this study was to examine how five secondary school chorus teachers create and implement assessments (musically or participatory) for their students, and if/how their views of assessment evolve as a result of their collective understanding of the five dimensions of equality of condition. The following questions guided the study: 1. How did the participants assess students at the beginning of the study? 2. Did participants’ perceptions of student assessment evolve over the course of the study, and if so, how? 3. Did participants modify their student assessments to align with the dimensions of equality of condition over the study’s duration? If so, how? Participants met in a collaborative teacher study group; data sources included meeting transcripts, journal entries, and sample assessments. The data were analyzed using descriptive coding (Saldaña, 2016) and axial coding (Merriam, 2009) to address the research questions. In total, four themes emerged from the data as being central to views on assessment and equality of condition: teaching philosophy, student relationships, democracy, and motivation. Four participants reported their philosophies had changed and two reported they adjusted assessments as a result of this study. Participants indicated barriers were time needed to plan and modify assessments, isolation as a result of being the only or one of only a few music educators in their buildings, and sharing control in a democratic classroom environment. The implications for these findings suggest that teachers are implementing formal assessments inconsistently; therefore, inequality of condition in the classroom regarding assessment may be present.

The purpose of this study was to examine 7th-grade composers’ strategies, processes, and perceptions, and the compositions they created using music technology in a constructionist-oriented learning environment. This embedded multiple case study examined the composition activities of eight 7th-grade students with varied musical backgrounds. During the 10-week data collection period, participants composed music using Hyperscore software underpinned by a constructionist-oriented theoretical framework. Hyperscore facilitates intuitive music composition and enables a composer to notate music with graphic notation without the need for understanding conventional music notation. I found that novice composers with relatively little to no formal musical training or experience creating original music could produce compositions emulating the strategies of professional composers. I also concluded that participants relied on inspiration as do professional composers and were able to intuitively and successfully create compositions including multiple sonic elements with minimal guidance and instruction. Participants exhibited evidence of thinking in and about sound. Findings also alerted future music educators and researchers to the potential of graphic notation software such as Hyperscore to undermine thinking in sound because of its unique sketch-oriented design that might emphasize symbol (i.e., drawing) before sound. I found that technology effectively scaffolded two participants’ processes. Contrastingly, in two cases and possibly more, results showed that participants might have benefited from more situated and responsive scaffolding by the instructor. My study also supported previous researchers’ findings that a balance between freedoms and constraints is essential to a novice composer’s success. Participants expressed general skepticism of themselves as bona fide composers, a desire or need for more time to develop their compositions, and value of agency, originality, and prior experience. Participants conveyed that individual and collaborative composition processes each had advantages and disadvantages; however, overall, they preferred collaboration over individual work. Participants attempted to reconcile their knowledge of traditional notation with graphic notation and drew from prior instrumental experience, familiar music, and their previous compositions to develop their pieces. I also discussed the extent to which and how particular Papertian, Piagetian, and Vygotskian theoretical constructs revealed themselves in my study.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how to choose, adapt, and arrange music for school full orchestras with incomplete instrumentation that are not yet ready to perform unarranged standard literature. The literature suggests that while school full orchestra directors may be able to find some published arrangements that include generous cues for missing instruments and parts for substitute instruments, the most effective approach is to alter and arrange music as-needed. When arranging, it is important for teachers to make choices that allow for their students to be successful, but also preserve the original octaves, timbres, form, and tempo of the piece, as intended by the composer. Arranging options that accommodate incomplete instrumentation are demonstrated in an arrangement by the author for school full orchestra of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 82, Movement I. Further examinations of arranging techniques and abridgement considerations are provided in an additional arrangement by the author of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, Movement I, for school string orchestra. Two different published arrangements of “Dance Bacchanale,” from the opera Samson and Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns, are compared to each other and to the original, to observe how existing arrangements anticipate and accommodate incomplete instrumentation in school full orchestras. A brief history of the full orchestra ensemble in American schools is also included.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of humming as a viable musicking activity based on measures of children's pitch acuity. Students are kindergarteners from a public elementary school in northern Delaware. Based on each participant’s homeroom assignment, these students will be placed in one of two groups during music instruction: (a) singing instruction only and (b) singing and humming instruction. As all kindergarteners will be participating in music instruction, no data will be collected for students who opted out of the study. Students were pretested in their humming and singing accuracy (pitch reproduction acuity), followed by four weeks of instruction. The posttest documented students' humming and singing accuracy using the Wise and Sloboda (2008) rating scale for singing accuracy in song performance. Student data were analyzed through mean, median, and standard deviation, and comparative data were analyzed using a t-test. Findings showed mixed results in the effectiveness of humming as a viable musicking activity. Significant growth was found across all measures in both humming and non-humming classes. However, greater significance was observed for students in classes that had music later in the school year, indicating that time influences kindergarteners' musical growth. Findings also indicated that exposure to music instruction has an impact on kindergarteners' willingness to perform music. / Music Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate current evaluation practices in Virginia and to assess the impact of public school evaluation upon teachers of music. Traditional methods for the evaluation of teachers appear to have limited applicability for the majority of elementary and secondary school educators engaged in the field of performing arts, due primarily to the specialized nature of their respective teaching disciplines. Educational administrators charged with the responsibility for evaluating personnel confront an additional challenge when compelled to apply general models that are not suited to the highly complex world of performing arts instruction. Music teachers and school divisions in Virginia served as sources of data for this descriptive study.;In order for educators to make informed evaluation decisions, comprehensive information about the contributions of music and other fine and performing arts personnel will need to be considered. New evaluation models emerging in recent years may hold the key for a more inclusive view of teaching performance in the arts. This study explored the use of current evaluation models in the context of music education and addressed the need for more reliable approaches to the evaluation of music teachers.

Throughout history, professional musicians experience pain when singing or playing instruments (Fishbein et al., 1988). Research continues to indicate pain remains a problem amongst musicians. Musicians looking to solve performance-related pain have used a variety of solutions including somatic, or movement, study. One method of movement study, the only one specifically dedicated to musicians, is Body Mapping. In this qualitative study I used an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis design to explore the experiences of beginning string students using lessons infused with Body Mapping (BMg) principles and students utilizing a more traditional method. The purpose of the study was to understand the ways in which lessons based on BMg principles might affect students’ lived experiences as they began to play a string instrument (violin, viola, cello), as opposed to those students whose lessons were more traditional, based on published beginning method books. Two teachers and four sixth-grade beginning string classes at two schools participated in this study. Eleven students were selected for in-depth interviews about their experiences in beginning string class. The teachers utilized a traditional string method book Essential Elements for Strings 2000 (Gillespie, 2000) with both of their classes, but also incorporated a researcher-designed curriculum incorporating BMg principles with one of the classes. The researcher collected qualitative data through interviews and observations. Journals, completed by all students, provided both qualitative and quantitative data. Both journal and chi square data indicated that students in the BMg classes felt the BMg lessons were helpful to learn about their body in movement. Qualitative data showed students retained and used anatomical words presented in the BMg lessons while the qualitative interviews of BMg students expressed greater awareness of how their bodies worked than students in the traditional classes. Teachers found the BMg principles to positively impact their classroom environments and student responses. The BMg curriculum aided study participants in finding a common language with which to communicate about the body. Analysis of study participants’ lived experiences indicated that BMg made a positive difference in the early learning of string instruments. Results of this study suggest that it is important that a curriculum using BMg principles be further explored and implemented widely among string teachers as a means to prevent performance related pain and injury.

The purpose of this study was to examine an exemplary choral program in detail, focusing on the non-musical aspects of the program. The study examined the school, the administration, the students, parents and community, director and accompanist. The study was undertaken in a school in western United States that recently appeared at the American Choral Directors Association national convention. Data were gathered by onsite visits, surveys, and interviews. These interviews were either video or audio taped and transcribed. The data were gathered and analyzed using grounded and emergent theory techniques. After data were coded, seven categories emerged: three categories of data generated by (and largely under the control of) the director, and four categories of data that were community driven. The director generated categories were: a charismatic choral director, clear goals, and recruiting procedures. The community controlled categories were: community expectations and awareness, the choir's privileged role in the community, administrative support, and money raising. This study found six non-musical factors present in this program that appear to explain its success: (1) A high level of community awareness and support. (2) A charismatic choral director who had both the ability and permission to raise large sums of money. (3) An adequate level of administrative support. (4) A support network that diffused some of the extraordinary pressures of running an exemplary choral program. (5) A unique way of providing the critical extra training that such a successful program needs. (6) A history of a strong feeder program that allowed the program to develop "critical mass" and become the class of choice for many of the student body. While this study focused on a single site, most of these six factors appear to be considerations leading to the success of any choral program. It is hoped that further research will lend support to the hypothesis that successful programs will exhibit the above six conditions.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to document parental views of the homeschool music curriculum in the state of Arkansas and assess how it affects the teaching and learning of music. I focused on homeschooling families before the beginning of the pandemic, which for the purpose of this dissertation is considered January 1st, 2020. The research questions which guided this dissertation were: 1.) What is the parent’s philosophy on the teaching and learning of music in homeschooling and in what ways do they report it has changed because of COVID-19? 2.) How do the parents describe their homeschool curricula, and how does music factor into the homeschool curriculum? 3.) How do homeschool parents report the difference between the teaching and learning of music and the teaching and learning of other subjects? Three homeschooling parents who use music in their curriculum were chosen from three distinct regions within the state of Arkansas. The regions were urban, the Coastal Plains, and the Highlands. Lengthy interviews with each family revealed that, dependent upon parental objectives, location, and availability of resources. Though parents shared many aspects of educational approach, the largest challenge shared by each parent was the lack of music education resources designed for the home. The parents hope to see the development of a comprehensive music education curriculum designed for homeschooling parents. The lack of such a comprehensive curriculum was discouraging to each parent. A review of existing resources confirmed their assessment. Each parent offered creative solutions which provide strategies for other homeschooling parents.