The Assessment of Audience‐Listening: testing a model in the educational setting of Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT Following the study carried out by Hentschke [(1993a) Musical development: testing a model in the audience‐listening setting, unpublished PhD thesis, Institute of Education, University of London; (1994/1995) A utilização do Modelo Espiral de Desenvolvimento Musical como critério de avaliação da apreciação musical, Em Pauta, 9/10, pp. 32—43], the aim of this research was to investigate the feasibility of using the Spiral Model of Musical Development [Swanwick & Tillman (1986) The sequence of musical development: a study of children's composition, British Journal of Music Education, 3 (3), pp. 305‐339] as a way of assessing audience‐listening responses of Brazilian students aged 6‐14. The method, based on that of Hentschke, consisted of a cross‐sectional survey, and used structured and semi‐structured interview techniques of data gathering. The sample consisted of 60 students, 20 from each grade (1st, 4th and 8th) from two primary schools of Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. These grades correspond to three age groups: 6—7, 9—10, and 13—14, respectively. Results showed that although there are some differences between audience‐listening responses of English and Brazilian students, they can be assessed through the same assessment model. The audience‐listening responses of Brazilian students, in contrast with those obtained by Hentschke from English students, showed the existence of gaps in the description of the audience‐listening criteria, and therefore an enlargement is suggested.