Teaching Behaviors of Middle School and High School Band Directors in the Rehearsal Setting

Abstract

The study was designed to investigate specific rehearsal behaviors exhibited by band directors in rehearsal settings. Of particular interest was the amount of time band directors engaged in conceptual teaching behaviors, defined as verbal behaviors of band directors in rehearsal settings in which the band director attempts to make students aware of, have an understanding of, and/or be able to transfer any musical concept. Participants ( N = 18) were full-time middle school or high school band, directors teaching in Florida. Each participant prepared a videotape of two or three regular band rehearsals. Randomly ordered 20-minute segments counterbalanced across all examples were extracted from each videotape for data analyses. Two trained observers viewed the prepared videotapes and simultaneously manipulated the dial of a Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) to indicate perceived teacher behaviors. The CRDI dial was partitioned along a 256-degree arc into seven specific teacher behaviors. Results indicated that, on average, directors spent less than 3% of observed teaching time engaged in conceptual teaching behaviors. Percentages of time were computed for additional instructional, non-interactive, and feedback behaviors.