Movement Responses of Pre-School Children, Primary Grade Children, and Pre-Service Classroom Teachers to Characteristics of Musical Phrases

Abstract

Two studies were completed to compare responses of pre-school children. primary grade children, and pre-service teachers to a movement-to-music task. In Study 1, pre-school and college aged subjects were divided into experimental groups, which responded to the stimulus piece its original form, and control groups, which responded to a version of the piece in which phrase order had been altered. Subjects individually performed a movement activity designed to elicit reactions to the varying phrase structures and stylistic characteristics of the music. Subjects appeared to respond to style rather than to structure, with differing patterns of responses between age groups evident. It was hypothesized that responses obtained might be explained by developmental stage and centration theories. Study 2 was undertaken to explore this hypothesis by expanding the age levels tested to primary grade students. Results suggest that developmental stages in subjects' ability to demonstrate decentration in response to a musical stimulus may be identifiable, and that this ability may begin earlier and take longer to develop than predicted by developmental theory.