Music Education Literature Research Articles

Impact evaluation of the turnaround arts pilot program: an interrupted time series analysis

The purpose of this study was to conduct an evaluation of the pilot program of the Turnaround Arts reform using a comparative interrupted time series design. Because the only existing evaluation of the Turnaround Arts pilot program lacks clarity and transparency, reanalyzing this program is important to understand the effects of the initiative. I created a unique dataset with nine variables to specifically evaluate the achievement outcomes of the pilot schools, which I paired with similarly matched control schools. Achievement measures included average math and reading language arts (RLA) percent proficient scores for each of the schools from 2010 to 2014 and were collected from the Stanford Education Data Archive. My results indicated that the original Turnaround Arts reform had no statistically significant impacts on the pilot schools achievement measures, an important link in the initiatives theory of action. These results support previous music education literature that found no positive causal effects between music education and non-music achievement scores. School music and arts programs are important for providing children with a well-rounded education; however, justifying the use of arts education for non-arts gains can undermine high-quality arts program development.

Children's Literature in Music Education and Walking the Path Starting From the Tradition

Children's Literature in Music Education and Walking the Path Starting From the Tradition

Physical Touch in the Voice Studio: A Closer Look

Physical touch as a teaching methodology for voice teachers is a subject that must be confronted. The issue is a timely one considering recent social movements that are shedding light on systems of power that lead to abusive practices within society. Furthermore, there is a lack of information and consensus in recently published vocal pedagogy and music education literature regarding the effectiveness of physical touch as a teaching modality. Some voice teachers feel physical touch is necessary for quickly correcting a technical problem, while others feel that physical touch is the only way to demonstrate certain technical concepts. Currently, voice pedagogy literature that advocates for the use of physical touch in a private voice lesson is predominately supported anecdotally rather than by research, and significantly lacks the perspective of the student. The field of motor learning research can be useful in informing voice pedagogy in specific areas of intersection. Additionally, when considering other factors (such as trauma and power dynamics in the voice studio), other equally viable teaching options must be considered. Given the current state of the field of voice pedagogy, it is of the opinion of the author that physical touch as a pedagogical technique in a voice lesson should be abandoned.

Strategi Inovatif untuk Meningkatkan Minat Siswa dalam Pembelajaran Teori Musik Pada Pendidikan Dasar

This research aims to find and apply new methods to increase students' interest in learning music theory. This is because students' interest in music theory has decreased. This research uses a qualitative approach with a literature review type of research. Data sources come from research results, books and websites that are relevant to the research. The data analysis used is content analysis. The research results show that the application of innovative strategies increases students' interest in learning music theory. Strategies that combine interactive and contextual elements have the greatest influence in increasing students' interest in music theory. This study provides music educators with important insight into the importance of change and innovation in teaching. Recommendations for educational practice and future research emphasize the need for approaches that better suit the needs and desires of today's students. These results add to the music education literature by demonstrating a useful method for addressing the problem of teaching music theory in modern schools.

Open Education and Music: An Introduction to Open Practices

Open education and related terminology have not gained widespread interest within the music education community. Despite this, music educators demonstrate open practices by leveraging digital technologies to share, collaborate, and innovate their teaching practice for student engagement and achievement. This article introduces open education terminology while highlighting related practices described in existing music education literature. Music educators will then have an opportunity to examine their teaching practices with an open education perspective moving forward.

Music Teacher Role Stress: A Structural Equation Model

Teaching music can be very stressful. The music education literature includes investigations of sources of stress and suggestions for stress relief, although it lacks a consistent underlying conceptual framework for stress. Role stress—a framework for understanding stress related to workplace dynamics—has the potential to provide structure while accounting for the nuance and complexity of organizations. The purpose of this study was to adapt and develop psychometrically sound questionnaires and then collect data to test a model to determine relationships among role stressors, role stress, and other variables of interest. Participants ( N = 1,576) responded to items related to six hypothesized role stressors, specialization and teaching loads, holding multiple jobs, years taught, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to leave the current job. I analyzed the data using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. Key findings included (a) strong relationships among role stress and negative occupational outcomes, (b) confirmation of four known role stressors but nonseparation of role conflict and role ambiguity in statistical models, and (c) weak relationships between role stress and model covariates (years teaching, within-specialization teaching, and having multiple jobs). These results have implications for current and prospective secondary music teachers, music teacher educators, and school administrators.

Serbian Folk Lullabies in Preschools: Significance and Representation

This paper discusses the importance of traditional folk lullabies in the education of preschool children and their representation in music education literature and practice. Scientific research indicates the development potential and importance of folk lullabies in early childhood. Serbian folk lullabies are not sufficiently represented in preschool education in central Serbia and Kosovo and Metohija, which is the starting hypothesis of the research presented in this paper. This research aims to determine the extent to which Serbian folk lullabies, as music content, are used in preschool education in central Serbia and Kosovo, and Metohija. The research included a total of 692 participants – preschool teachers and parents. It was found: 1) that Serbian folk lullabies are insufficiently represented in music education literature for preschool age; 2) that preschool teachers and parents are not sufficiently informed about the educational benefit and importance of folk lullabies. The paper contributes to the actualization of Serbian traditional folk lullabies, and their greater representation in music education literature and practice. The descriptive method was used in the research, as well as the analysis and synthesis method.

Unobserved Potential: Latent Variables and Music Education Research

AbstractThis article describes several latent variable approaches that can support rigorous quantitative inquiry in music education. I provide a definition of latent variables, list several advantages associated with their use for the measurement of constructs, and review three types of latent variables featuring utility for music education scholars: factor models, item response models, and latent class (mixture) models. Each type of model is illustrated with exemplar studies from music education literature. In addition, I report the results of a systematic analysis of latent variables’ use in published music education research. Over the past decade, latent variables were used in only 14.29% of the quantitative research reports in two prominent journals: the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education and the Journal of Research in Music Education. The majority of these latent variable applications (80.56%) were factor models; however, there are myriad additional possibilities. While not appropriate for every study, latent variable models have as-yet unrealized potential to improve the richness and rigor in nearly all areas of music education research.

Lauren Kapalka Richerme, Complicating, Considering, and Connecting Music Education (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020)

Reviewed by: Complicating, Considering, and Connecting Music Education by Lauren Kapalka Richerme Nasim Niknafs Lauren Kapalka Richerme, Complicating, Considering, and Connecting Music Education (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020) Laurern Kapalka Richerme courageously engages with some of the significant concepts of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in a timely bounded volume, Complicating, Considering, and Connecting Music Education. Through this colossal endeavor, though not the first time a music education scholar deeply explores Deleuzian concepts and theoretical analyses, Richerme provides a fresh perspective on his oeuvre within the field and paves the way for more engaged scholarly exploration on the roles and responsibilities of music education.1 Considering the vanity in saying what one sees, as “what we see never resides in what we say,”2 any review of works related to Deleuzian concepts is more of an arborescent endeavor than a rhizomatic one. Consequently, the current review of Richerme’s book may also refute and go against Deleuze and Guattari’s most salient arguments. However, I would like to specifically elaborate on Richerme’s treatment of time; a much welcomed and overlooked aspect of education that Richerme has appositely and strongly delivered. “Music education is not a stagnant ‘what’ but a temporal ‘when’ . . . While the question, ‘What is music education?’ solidifies music education into an immobile identity, asking ‘When is music education?’ emphasizes the differing, individually constructed nature of [End Page 202] educational experiences.”3 Not necessarily an original proposition to treat music education as a process rather than a product, a journey rather than a destination, a meandering rather than walking on a straight line, a desired path rather than a pre-constructed road, Richerme’s angle of this conversation takes on an entirely new path. Rather than solving the problem, as the problem is one’s music education, she elegantly modifies the question: “When is music education?”4 Richerme redirects the reader’s attention from the “spatial turn” in which the field has been engrossed to a temporal one, and from a totalizing music education to a totality of music education:5 “My voice cannot be ‘lost’ or ‘found,’ only silenced or embraced—restrained or encouraged to grow. It will always exist in an uncertain middle, differing day after day.”6 Written in eight chapters with two bookending chapters with the same title, “Rhizomatic Journeying,” while the middle chapter re-considers considering and the penultimate chapter discusses the when in music education, Richerme demands the reader to attend to not only the book’s content but the poetic delivery of its prose. One could even recite the sentences and feel the elevation. Richerme’s unique voice is laudable for its humility of approach and candid pronouncements of mistakes made along the way of becoming-toward7 music educator. When reading, I felt I was a fellow traveler crossing paths with her while she shared some of her moments with me. She and I were the Nighthawks of Edward Hopper’s painting. Richerme was there to tell her story and I was there to silently listen; “the story is told and untold. Then retold.”8 And it is in this retelling that I would like to situate this review. This volume is first and foremost an ode to music education. Richerme has a command of the music education literature which manifests itself in the myriad examples she explores. She does not claim to portray novel ideas but crossing paths with other scholars in music education concerning not only Deleuzian concepts but ethical matters of education: “deeming something ‘good for’ is not the same as finding it ‘good’ in the ethical sense.”9 She does not disagree with scholars, perhaps following Deleuzian footsteps, but complements them; an exercise in nuance and scholarly practice not always historically prevalent in the field. However, this practical side of the book that attempts to situate Deleuzian concepts within music education are brought forth at the expense of a deeper level of theoretical analysis of and engagement with their comprehensively theorized concepts such as becoming, striated space, immanence, refrain, and deterritorialization. At times, it feels as though these concepts have been magiccarpeted rather than integrated within music education situations. This volume comes across, marvellously...

The role of negative emotions in learning music: qualitative understanding of Australian undergraduate students’ listening experience of unfamiliar music

AbstractThis paper examines the experience and role of negative emotions in facilitating university students’ learning in world music courses. Based on a review of literature in music psychology and music education, we posit that negative emotions can engender a meaningful learning context. In this project conducted in an Australian university, we created a condition in which students were engaged in repeated listening to recordings of music from cultures different from their own, which they reported as sounding “unpleasant.” We then analysed how they overcame emotional responses through a listening exercise. The findings suggest that the students developed enhanced motivation and cognitive reflection by facing their own negative emotions through repeated listening. The article finishes with a discussion about the positive side of negative emotions and the negative side of positive emotions as they relate to music education.

Narrative is Not Emancipatory, but Affective Moments Might Be

Given that the nature of narrative has gone largely unexamined in music education literature, the purpose of this philosophical inquiry is to consider whether narrative creation and telling might be more inherently liberating or confining than Bowman (2006) suggests. I argue that narratives are ordered, temporarily frozen accounts of complicated prior experiences that individuals justify within prevailing ethical norms. While individuals may feel liberated during the process of forming and telling self-stories, narratives inherently resist emancipation. Subsequently, I examine the nature of affective moments and their relationship with narrative. While both narratives and affect theoryinspired writings represent reality, the latter emphasize sensations and mundane encounters not embedded within a clear plotline. Affective moments serve a crucial purpose in our contemporary precarious and emotionally charged world. Affective moments involve interruption, illuminating the distinction between now and could be. As such, the potential for emancipation, although not necessarily its realization, is an inherent part of affective moments. I end by discussing possible implications for qualitative research, including potential resonances and uncertainties.

Research-to-Resource: Applying a Self-Care Framework to Music Education

Self-care is a topic that has gained traction among helping professionals. It is considered a preventive health care measure used to promote physical and mental health as well as personal well-being. In this article, I use a self-care framework created for social workers and adapt it to music educators with the intention of aiding music teachers in practicing and maintaining their own self-care. The self-care framework is categorized into two dimensions—personal and professional self-care—which each contains various domains. Pragmatic strategies grounded in relevant literature in music education are described in each category within the self-care framework. By providing a self-care framework and relevant strategies, I aim to improve knowledge of self-care practices of music teachers.

Examination of activity books used in pre-school music education

Music in pre-school education is an important field in terms of affective, cognitive and psychomotor development of children. In order to increase the quality of music education, musical activities should be appropriate to the level of children, educational and entertaining. In recent years, pre-school music education has been carried out within the framework of play, movement, dance, rhythm and improvisation, separate from the traditional approach. Teachers need supplementary books containing songs, games and activities in accordance with the required pre-school gains to be used in musical activities. There are ancillary resources mentioned in the music education literature that include these activities and are informative for teachers. However, the adequacy of the existing activity books is an important issue in terms of the better implementation of pre-school music education. This study aimed to examine the activity books that teachers use in pre-school music education. The study is a document review. Books were analysed in terms of activities and songs.
 Keywords: Music education, pre-school, activity books.

Learning through praise: How Christian worship band musicians learn

Abstract Popular music education continues to increase in North American educational settings. While popular music teaching and learning are recognized in a variety of contexts, contemporary Christian church praise bands have not been significantly addressed in music education literature. In addressing this gap, the purpose of this study is to examine the musicking practices occurring in the contemporary worship music (CWM) context and how these lead contemporary Christian musicians to acquire and develop their musical skills. Green’s five principles of informal music learning were found to apply in part, yet other distinctive features were also present in study findings. Themes such as elitism, excellence, hierarchies of musical engagement, and inclusion/exclusion of worshippers and the congregation also arose, providing interesting areas for future research.

Speech-language pathologists with a vocal music background: exploring impact on the training of the transgender voice

Speech-language pathology, vocal music, and music education literature reveal similar and complementary approaches to the transgender voice. The purpose of this qualitative pilot study was to explore what, if any, impact having a vocal music background has on how a speech-language pathologist (SLP) works with transgender and non-binary voice modification clients. Two SLPs were interviewed regarding their vocal music backgrounds, their work with transgender voice modification clients, and their thoughts on how music and voice modification training intersect. Results of the study indicate that a musical background may be beneficial to both the SLP and clients. Musical training provided the SLP with a broader range of tools for training clients in voice modification techniques, including the ability to model exercises, and manipulate timbre, resonance, and placement of the voice with great nuance. Both SLPs explicitly cite their vocal music background as being helpful in their practice. Further refinement of the interview protocol, as well as multiple interviews with a larger pool of subjects, will determine if the results of this study are generalisable.

Music education literature in German-language polyethnic schools in Estonia, 1860–1914

ABSTRACT This article focuses on music education literature in German-language schools in Estonia from 1860 to 1914. Music education literature in Estonian schools with German as a language of instruction has been an unexplored field of research. As a result of this systematic research, a representative sample of music education literature was formed: 30 German-language editions and 2,330 songs. The songbooks and music textbooks were considered as signs of German culture being dominant. The profound social, economic, and political changes, characteristic for the nineteenth century, caused tensions, which were expressed in the content of music literature.

One direction: a future for secondary school music education?

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on the first stage of an international study addressing the future of secondary school music education. Some music educators have asked if school is the right place for music education, and the music education literature continually calls music curricula and pedagogy to account for its apparent shortcomings, while contemporary education literature criticises education generally for its lack of responsiveness to our changing world. Within this discursive context this study adopts the Delphi method, creating a ‘virtual’ panel of internationally drawn experts, to collectively consider secondary school music’s apparent direction. We utilise concepts from Legitimation Code Theory to frame initial findings from interviewing nine leading music education experts about their current concerns and their vision for secondary school music. The variety of responses in relation to purpose, knowledge, pedagogy, and structures suggest fundamental tensions in conceptualising secondary school music education’s direction and future.

Losing Self: The Application of Zhuangzian <em>Wuwei</em> and Balinese <em>Taksu</em> to the Development of Musicianship

To respond to the current advocacy of a transcultural inquiry into music education philosophy rooted deeply in Western civilization, the primary purpose of this essay is to provide a broader alternative to examine the phenomena of music teaching and learning to bridge the philosophical gap between the West and the East. This essay also attempts to expand the discussion of Eastern philosophies by including Balinese taksu, an aesthetic and ecstatic experience rarely discussed in music education literature. I juxtapose the intellectual and spiritual methods of attaining enlightenment through Zhuangzi's wuwei (無為), non-action or effortlessly losing self, and Balinese taksu and associate them with Turner's liminality theory, Csíkszentmihályi's flow state, and other Western scholars' discussions on spirituality and music to illustrate the ultimate spiritual enlightenment that an exemplary person or a virtuoso can achieve. The intersecting parallels between wuwei and taksu enable me to suggest a multi-stage development of musicianship as a way of learning that allows students to identify their inner selves, to evaluate the difficulty levels of obstacles challenging their mastery and overcome them, to roam in between practice routines, and eventually to enjoy the ecstatic experience of flow, losing self in performance.

Investigating TPCK through music focusing on affect

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the lack of a theoretical framework for the integration of technology in music teaching and learning, and explores, within the framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK or TPACK), the importance of affect in instructional design.Design/methodology/approachThe authors reviewed relevant literature related to the fields of music education, instructional design, and technology integration. Accordingly, they developed guidelines for designing technology-enhanced learning for the activities of music composition and listening.FindingsThe authors propose a set of design principles based on the TPCK framework through the subject matter of music focusing on the affective domain, and identify interrelations among musical content, emotions, and technology. The design guidelines were tested in an empirical investigation and the results showed statistically significant differences between the control and the experimental groups in favor of the experimental group.Research limitations/implicationsFurther investigation is necessary to test the effectiveness of the proposed design principles. Including affect in the design process is a complicated and mostly unchartered area, and, thus, further research toward this direction is fully justified.Practical implicationsThe research has practical significance, addressing a gap in the field of music education, as it provides teachers with explicit guidance about how to design music lessons with technology while incorporating affect.Originality/valueThe study extends the theoretical framework of TPCK to a design framework and proposes instructional design guidelines that address both the cognitive and the affective domains of learning, a focus that is currently missing from the existing TPCK or TPACK literature as well as the music education literature.

Transfer of Learning and Music Understanding: A Review of Literature

Transfer of learning is considered to be a fundamental goal of education, yet it is often assumed or left to chance on the part of the learner. This paradox points to the renewed investment in creating purposeful learning opportunities for students and preparing teachers who are equipped to translate their knowledge, skills, and dispositions into meaningful interactions with students that promote transfer. The purpose of this literature review is to examine the development of transfer of learning over the past 40 years and consider the implications for music education practices. A theoretical overview of transfer of learning is provided, along with a summary of curricular frameworks that are centered around transfer of learning, and a review of select studies from the music education literature that pertain to transfer of learning. The final section offers recommendations for practice and future research.