Private Instruction Research Articles

The importance of teaching performance artistry

This article will explain the philosophy and methodology behind developing and teaching the performance artistry curriculum at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Students who study performance artistry are more prepared to work in the popular music industry/marketplace – personally, artistically and professionally. They report being more widely informed about the business of their artistry, having clearer goals, owning their identities, embracing communication with their audiences, using a more honest voice on their social platforms, and feeling freer to take risks. Success in this field is a combination of presentation, forethought, execution, content, strategy and effectiveness on top of talent. I will detail performance artistry assignments and illustrate their role in bringing out authenticity and excellence in a collegiate music major population. This curriculum contains valuable training tools in different educational configurations (lecture-style classes, private instruction and workshop/masterclass settings) and all genres.

TEACHING SPEAKING IN IMPROVING STUDENTS' MOTIVATION AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE AMONG CAMBODIAN ENGLISH PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This study aimed to explore the influence of student motivation and student performance through teaching speaking skills and the benefits of private instruction among secondary school students in one private school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Several significant drawbacks for students learning English speaking skills affect their motivation and performance. Students lose confidence in producing vocabulary and structure in their speaking. This research uses quantitative methods. Correlation coefficient and P-value are applied to measure the effect of each variable. Student motivation and performance findings are well related to learning English speaking skills based on a statistically significant positive correlation between speaking teaching and student motivation r = 0.64 with vital statistical significance (p<0.01). Also, a statistically significant positive correlation exists between teaching English speaking and student performance; r = 0.78, with vital statistical significance (p<0.01). In addition, a positive correlation between teaching English speaking and student motivation is statistically significant. r = 0.43, with a high level of statistical significance (p<0.01). The main findings show a correlation between speaking skills, student motivation, and corresponding student performance. For further studies, it could investigate critical variables such as teaching spoken English to students. In addition, if possible, the new theory adapted should be self-theory, goal theory, or mixed methods by increasing the sample size and target locus.

Influence of Private Tuitions on Quality of Secondary Education

Influence of Private Tuitions on Quality of Secondary Education

Private Instructions as a Factor for Successful Exam Passing

Although private instruction is considered a shadow of the official system, the aim of this paper is to show that they are not only a consequence of the educational system, but that they have a moderating role on it. Based on the conceptual model, after the analysis of the characteristics of individual scales used in the research, an exploratory factor analysis was performed for all constructs of the conceptual model, which included the selection of variables in individual factors based on their metric characteristics. However, the obtained results pointed to the inadequacy of the sample to approach the assessment of the structural model, and conclusions about the model were made based on the previous analysis, and they were used to improve the validity and reliability of the measuring instrument in possible further research. The moderating role of instructions on the success of passing the exam has been proven, and of the factors that influenced the success of passing the exam, only prior knowledge proved to be statistically reliable. The obtained results will contribute to a better understanding of this growing phenomenon, explain the motivation, but also encourage further research.

The Influence of Equipment and Environment on Children and Young Adults Learning Aquatic Skills.

Learning aquatic skills is an important component of developing physical literacy in children. Aquatic skills such as floating, swimming and safe entry/exit promote engagement in different water environments and may help preserve lives in an emergency. This scoping review was conducted to evaluate the influence of task constraints (i.e., equipment) and environmental constraints (i.e., physical and social) on how children learn foundational aquatic skills. In developed countries, children are typically taught in swimming pools under direct supervision. It is also not uncommon to see children and infants learning to swim with assistive equipment (e.g., buoyancy aids). However, perhaps surprisingly, the evidence on how and where children learn aquatic skills does not uniformly promote such practices. For example, the use of flotation devices has not been proven to aid skill learning. Some researchers have advocated that children should learn aquatic skills whilst wearing outdoor clothing. One benefit of children wearing clothing is an increased capacity to practice in colder water (such as the ocean, rivers, or lakes). Overall, whilst practitioners often use equipment for various reasons it seems that not all equipment is equally useful in promoting the acquisition of aquatic skills. In less developed countries, with limited access to swimming pools and fewer resources for private instruction, a range of different open water aquatic environments and practices, such as swimming in temporarily flooded areas, have been reported. Such strategies are in urgent demand of further research given that drowning rates in less developed countries around the world exceed those in developed nations. It can be argued that learning in pools does not afford the opportunities to develop the whole range of adaptive skills that may be required in different open water environments such as navigating currents and waves, floating whilst clothed, or making life-saving decisions. Consequently, a shift toward teaching in open water environments has occurred in several countries. This review provides an evidence-base upon which practitioners can design more effective aquatic education programs for children.

Barriers to Access and University Schools of Music: A Collective Case Study of Urban High School Students of Color and Their Teachers

Abstract Although there are benefits to a racially and culturally diverse teaching workforce, the music teaching profession remains predominantly White. Using an “opportunity gap” framework, this study aimed to discover what, if any, barriers to access to applying to university schools of music—a first step in becoming music teachers—exist according to high school students of color and their music teachers. Employing a collective case study methodology, the researchers observed classes, interviewed music teachers, and conducted focus groups in two high schools in a city in the northeast United States. Findings suggest that the teachers and students valued high standards, and they found local culture and community engagement to be an important aspect of their music education. However, ultimately students did not want to audition or found the process difficult for the following reasons: the audition process did not align with students’ values of community music making; there is an assumption that auditioning students have participated in prerequisite activities, including private instruction and honors ensembles; students did not possess knowledge of the unspoken rules of audition procedures; and participants found the university requirements, including nonmusic standards and transitioning to college, to be difficult. Based on these findings, changes to the audition and recruitment processes, including community engagement, are proposed.

The Status of Strings and Orchestra Programs in U.S. Schools

The purpose of this study was to monitor the status of school string and orchestra programs in the United States and to gather descriptive information in the areas of program characteristics, curriculum, support, and student/teacher demographics. A second purpose was to document trends observed when compared with results of previous studies. Based on the review of literature, specific variables were identified as potential for trends: string student enrollment, symphonic orchestra offerings, enhancement offerings, private lesson enrollment, string teacher shortages, and student/teacher demographic information. All members of the American String Teachers Association indicating K-12 string teaching as part of their duties were contacted to complete a web-based survey ( N = 2,232). After follow-up contact, 369 respondents participated (16.5%). Although teachers indicated growth in both number and size of programs, increased utilization of approved curricula, and representative racial demographics among students, analysis revealed the following concerns: a decline in the offering of symphonic orchestra and other enhancements, a decline in student participation in private instruction, unrepresentative gender and racial demographics of string teachers, and factors that indicate a continuing string teacher shortage.

Verilog Design of Programmable JTAG Controller for Digital VLSI IC’s

The objective of this work is to design and implement a custom reconfigurable JTAG controller in Verilog. It can be directly inserted in to a new digital IC designs with little modifications. It is fully compatible with IEEE 1149.1 standards. Additional programmable private instructions can also be added in to the design. A secure access mechanism is provided in to the controller which helps in protecting the system by preventing the un-authorized users from interfering with the system functions. A locking and opening mechanism and a password key based access control were incorporated as part of the JTAG controller module. The controller was configured to fit into different ISCAS’89 digital VLSI benchmark designs and results are analysed. It is observed that as the design size increases the area and power overhead decreases but the number of boundary scan vectors increases. All the designs were written in Verilog and RTL simulations were performed using Cadence NC-Sim Simulator. Cadence Encounter Test Architect 13.1 was used to check the boundary scan flow and analysis. A line graph to depict the power and area overhead is also shown. Complete performance analysis of the ISCAS’89 designs with and without the JTAG controller was performed. The power and area overhead was found to be negligible as the size of the VLSI designs increases.

A Survey of Practice Behaviors among Middle and High School String Players

We were interested in middle and high school string musicians’ reports of how they spend their practice time and how often they use specific practice strategies. These 211 middle and high school participants reported an average of 5.64 years (SD = 2.61) of string playing experience, with an average of about four years of private instruction. Students in the most advanced of three ensembles reported more private lesson instruction than students in the other two ensembles. There were no differences in how students in the three groups rated the occurrence of the following strategies: self-recording of practice, varying articulations, varying rhythms, left-hand only practice, and right-hand articulation practice. Advanced students reported significantly more: listening to recordings, using a metronome, isolating shifts, repeating of short sections, part marking in general and marking half steps. Students made frequent comments regarding strategies used to improve intonation, such as use of a drone, practice with a tuner, and using open strings as a reference. When asked to provide advice to a peer, the most frequent advice was to practice slowly.

Emile the citizen? A reassessment of the relationship between private education and citizenship in Rousseau’s political thought

It is often said that the claims of man and citizen are irreconcilable in the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This view, most famously articulated by Judith Shklar, holds that the making of a man and the making of a citizen are to be understood as rival enterprises or competing alternatives. This reading has recently been challenged by Frederick Neuhouser. He argues that one can make a man and a citizen, but only if the education of each is performed in the absence of the other. In his view, Emile is raised to be a man first (Books I–IV) before his subsequent instruction in citizenship (Book V). This paper challenges both views. I argue that the making of man and citizen are, in principle, neither rival enterprises nor competing alternatives, and that although Neuhouser is indeed correct to argue for a successive system of education, the making of a citizen is not completed in Emile, but extends into the Social Contract. His account diminishes the crucial role the Lawgiver plays in the fashioning of citizens capable of discerning the general will. I show that although raising individuals under a system of private instruction does not preclude their transformation into citizens but makes such a transformation possible, it is on its own incapable of making citizens.

Literate Actions, Reading Attitudes, and Reading Achievement: Interconnections Across Languages for Adolescent Learners of English in Korea

Using the three components of attitude in Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) Reasoned Action Theory—cognition (personal and evaluative beliefs), affect (feelings, emotions), and conation (behavioral intentions)—the present study investigated relations among L1 and L2 reading attitudes, the relative contributions of reading attitude and language proficiency to reading achievement, and various factors that shape L2 reading attitude. Participants were 289 middle school students studying English in Korea. Their language proficiency, reading achievement, and reading attitudes in L1 and L2 were measured. Results indicated that measures of L1 reading attitude factors correlated with scores on the corresponding L2 reading attitude factor. Despite the correlations between cross‐linguistic reading attitudes, reading attitudes in L1 and L2 exhibited different tendencies. Both cognitive attitude and language proficiency predicted L1 reading comprehension, whereas language proficiency was the sole contributor to L2 reading achievement. Reading frequency significantly contributed to reading attitude and achievement scores in L1, but such patterns were not as clearly apparent in L2. Also, proficiency in both L1 and L2 was associated with more positive reading attitudes and fewer negative feelings about reading in the corresponding language. Finally, several factors predicted L2 reading attitude: access to books, length of private instruction, teachers' encouragement, and participant gender.

Literate Actions, Reading Attitudes, and Reading Achievement: Interconnections Across Languages for Adolescent Learners of English in Korea

Using the three components of attitude in Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) Reasoned Action Theory—cognition (personal and evaluative beliefs), affect (feelings, emotions), and conation (behavioral intentions)—the present study investigated relations among L1 and L2 reading attitudes, the relative contributions of reading attitude and language proficiency to reading achievement, and various factors that shape L2 reading attitude. Participants were 289 middle school students studying English in Korea. Their language proficiency, reading achievement, and reading attitudes in L1 and L2 were measured. Results indicated that measures of L1 reading attitude factors correlated with scores on the corresponding L2 reading attitude factor. Despite the correlations between cross-linguistic reading attitudes, reading attitudes in L1 and L2 exhibited different tendencies. Both cognitive attitude and language proficiency predicted L1 reading comprehension, whereas language proficiency was the sole contributor to L2 reading achievement. Reading frequency significantly contributed to reading attitude and achievement scores in L1, but such patterns were not as clearly apparent in L2. Also, proficiency in both L1 and L2 was associated with more positive reading attitudes and fewer negative feelings about reading in the corresponding language. Finally, several factors predicted L2 reading attitude: access to books, length of private instruction, teachers' encouragement, and participant gender.

High school music classes enhance the neural processing of speech

Should music be a priority in public education? One argument for teaching music in school is that private music instruction relates to enhanced language abilities and neural function. However, the directionality of this relationship is unclear and it is unknown whether school-based music training can produce these enhancements. Here we show that 2 years of group music classes in high school enhance the neural encoding of speech. To tease apart the relationships between music and neural function, we tested high school students participating in either music or fitness-based training. These groups were matched at the onset of training on neural timing, reading ability, and IQ. Auditory brainstem responses were collected to a synthesized speech sound presented in background noise. After 2 years of training, the neural responses of the music training group were earlier than at pre-training, while the neural timing of students in the fitness training group was unchanged. These results represent the strongest evidence to date that in-school music education can cause enhanced speech encoding. The neural benefits of musical training are, therefore, not limited to expensive private instruction early in childhood but can be elicited by cost-effective group instruction during adolescence.

Actor Training in New York City

��� oday there are more than one hundred and fifty universities in the U.S. offer ing either a BFA or an MFA in acting. Nearly all of them are trying to prepare students for work onstage or in film and television. In addition to these programs, there are literally hundreds of undergraduate theatre programs that offer a BA concentration in acting, as well as countless acting studios, academies, and teachers operating privately, all of which add to a growing list of people and institutions that comprise American actor training. In short, the training of U.S. actors is an industry unto itself, a point demonstrated by the ubiquity of advertisements lining the pages of American Theatre any given month. Does this country really need several hundred acting schools? Can the profession even remotely provide employment for the thousands of young men and women who graduate from these programs each year? What is the overarching purpose of training U.S. actors, and who is ultimately being served by it? Because of the sheer scope of the topic, my focus is limited to acting programs at colleges and universities in New York City and its surrounding area. This sampling of the academic structure, curriculum, faculty, and pedagogy of a handful of programs can serve as a general representation of U.S. actor training at the level of higher education. Limitations of space preclude mentioning the numerous acting studios, academies, and private instruction currently offered in New York City. Nonetheless, the reader should be reminded that there are hundreds of businesses and individuals marketing themselves as actor trainers in New York City today, a fact made obvious by a simple Google search of the subject. Prior to the 1960s, acting instruction at the level of higher education was primarily under the auspices of English and speech departments, whereas privately operated academies and acting schools largely prepared people for the profession. Beginning with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1884, most of these pre-professional schools were located in New York City. In the middle 1950s, there were roughly fifteen to twenty such schools that ranged from the American Academy to offshoots of the Group Theatre’s approach to acting, namely the Stella Adler Conservatory, Neighborhood Playhouse, and Actors Studio. During the 1960s, and in conjunction THE EDUCATION OF THE ARTIST

Elocution and Feminine Power in the First Quarter of the Twentieth Century: The Career of Carolyn Winkler (Paterson) as Performer and Teacher

The professional life of elocutionist Alvina Winker Paterson suggests that previous views about women being excluded from rhetorical activities in the earlier twentieth century need to be revised. Like many other contemporary women, Winkler Paterson was able to avail herself of private instruction in elocution and become a highly successful performer and educator in the Northeast. Her career casts considerable light on the nature of elocutionary performance, the course of elocutionary education, and feminine access to public arenas and power at the time.

A Renaissance Education: Schooling in Bergamo and the Venetian Republic, 1500-1650 (review)

Reviewed by: A Renaissance Education: Schooling in Bergamo and the Venetian Republic, 1500-1650 Thomas Deutscher A Renaissance Education: Schooling in Bergamo and the Venetian Republic, 1500-1650. By Christopher Carlsmith. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2010. Pp. xvii, 435. $75.00. ISBN 978-0-802-09254-0.) Recent years have witnessed the publication of a number of important studies on education in early-modern Italy, including books by Paul Grendler and Robert Black. With this multi-faceted study, Christopher Carlsmith has made a worthy contribution to the literature. Carlsmith advances a number of arguments about education in Bergamo (located on the western border of the Venetian terraferma), but the most important is to emphasize the wide range [End Page 789] of educational choices offered by the commune, lay confraternities, the diocese, religious orders, and noble parents. Carlsmith begins with the efforts of the commune to instruct local youth at the pre-university level. These fluctuated dramatically over time due to a lack of consistent funding. From 1482 to 1524 the commune emphasized grammar and humanities by hiring humanist masters such as Giovanni Batista Pio and Giovita Ravizza, who were from outside the city. After 1525 the educational endeavors of the commune waned, and it experimented with a variety of approaches, including a public college, a joint venture with a local confraternity, sporadic efforts to teach law, and arrangements with religious orders to supervise public instruction. The commune was unable to maintain a school for more than a decade or two. When a dedicated teacher could be found, the schools displayed some continuity, but when the master departed or retired, the schools declined. Lay confraternities, led by the powerful Misericordia Maggiore, were remarkably prominent in promoting education among both lay boys and clerics at Bergamo. The confraternities provided scholarships and hundreds of one-time gifts to students. But the most significant contribution was the Misericordia's establishment of a day school in 1506 to remedy the problem of clerical ignorance. The school functioned until 1566, when it was replaced by a residential academy for clerics, which continued until 1610, and then a new academy that was founded in 1617 and continued into the eighteenth century. The Council of Trent was a milestone in that the Church tried to reclaim its primacy in education. New initiatives included the development of schools of Christian doctrine, conducted by laypersons and open to all children of the city, and the diocesan seminary, which was founded in 1567 with meager resources and only twenty-five students. The post-Tridentine bishops encountered many difficulties when raising funds for the seminary, but by the seventeenth century the seminary was on stable ground. Carlsmith also devotes a chapter to the work of the religious orders. Here it was the Somaschans who succeeded in establishing a college (1632), whereas the Jesuits were repeatedly rebuffed, in part because the commune and the Venetian Republic were wary of their reputation for close ties to Rome. As in other cities, the wealthier families of Bergamo contributed to the mix by attempting to provide private instruction for their children. Perhaps because of a lack of suitable tutors, the families pooled their resources to found their own schools, most notably the Caspi academy that functioned from 1547 until 1556-57 and focused on younger boys between the ages of five and thirteen. Carlsmith's work is based on extensive research at the archives of commune, diocese, seminary, religious orders, and lay confraternities, to name only [End Page 790] the most important. His study centers on dozens of contracts with teachers, supplemented by letters, orations, treatises on education, and inventories of books. Carlsmith brings to life the stories of numerous teachers, lay and religious leaders, and educational foundations that graced Bergamo in this era. He also develops a number of secondary themes, including the popularity of humanism, the resurgence of Church-led education, the efforts of the noble families to provide for their children, and the surprising degree of cooperation among commune, confraternities, bishops, and the religious orders. He ends with a comparative analysis of other towns and cities in the Diocese of Bergamo and in the Veneto to support the conclusion that in early...

Korean elementary school students’ English learning demotivation: a comparative survey study

This study explores Korean elementary school students’ decreased motivation for English learning by analyzing the questionnaire data obtained from 6,301 students in a large city in South Korea. The students’ school grades and their prior experience in private institutes were considered as the major factors behind the decrease in their motivation. There was a statistically significant and consistent decrease in the students’ satisfaction with their English learning experience; expectation of ultimate success in English; and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation and integrative/instrumental motivation. Prior experience in attending private institutes had a substantial impact on the students’ motivation. Those who attended private institutes (hakwons) exhibited higher levels of instrumental and intrinsic motivation. However, in terms of other motivational constructs of integrative and extrinsic (parental, academic) motivation, private instruction had a negligible or negative impact. By comparing the results with those of Lamb (2007), the present study proposes that Korean students should be made to internalize the beneficial role played by English so that their English learning motivation can be maintained.

Kotekan in the Traditional Shona Mbira Music of Zimbabwe


 
 
 This article documents musical interlocking as it is traditionally practiced among the Shona people of Zimbabwe. Its focus is on the music of the mbira dzavadzimu, a traditional musicial instrument that consists of 22-25 or more keys distributed over three manuals(keyboards) played with both thumbs and one index finger. Numerous musical examples,using notational symbols developed for this study, are used throughout to clarify all technicaldetails. Most of the notational symbols are the same or similar to those used by Paul Berliner in his classic study The Soul of Mbira (Berliner: 1978). Six complete traditional mbira dzavadzimu pieces are presented in easy-to-read notated form: “Nhemamusasa,” “Chakwi,” “Nhemamusasa Variation,” “Nyamaropa,” “Shumba,” and “Taireva.” Four different categories ofinterlocking procedures form the core of the article: 1) Interlocking in Solo Mbira Music; 2) Interlocking in Two-Part Mbira Music; 3) Interlocking in Three-Part Mbira Music; and 4) Interlocking in Multiple-Part Mbira Music. Three supporting categories are also presented: 1) Interlocking in Mbira “High-Line” Parts; 2) Interlocking in Accompanying Vocal Parts; and 3) Interlocking in Miscellaneous Accompanying Parts. Much of the data in this article was gathered by the author through his private instruction with the following distinguished Shona mbira players: Irene Chigamba, Tute Chigamba, Musekiwa Chingodza, Stella Chiweshe, Michael Kamunda, Forward Kwenda, Ephat Mujuru, and Luken Kwari Pasipamire. 
 
 

Al-Ghazali's philosophical theology

Chapter One: A Life Between Public and Private Instruction: Al-Ghaz?l?'s Biography Chapter Two: Al-Ghaz?l?'s Most Influential Students and Followers Chapter Three: Al-Ghaz?l? On the Role of falsafa in Islam Chapter Four: The Reconciliation of Reason and Revelation Through the Rule of Interpretation Chapter Five: Cosmology in Early Islam-Developments that Led to al-Ghaz?l?'s Incoherence of the Philosophers Chapter Six: The Seventeenth Discussion of the Incoherence of the Philosophers Chapter Seven: Knowledge of Causal Connections is Necessary Chapter Eight: Causes and Effects in the Revival of the Religious Sciences Chapter Nine: Cosmology in Works Written After the Revival

Review of String Orchestra Literature: Educational Articles appearing in Peer-Reviewed Journals from 1980–2007

This literature review summarizes recent string orchestra literature pertaining to findings, implications, and future research suggestions for school orchestra programs and private instruction. String education literature chosen for this review appeared in peer-reviewed, music education journals since 1980, resulting in 59 summaries. Twelve emergent themes were explored, and studies relevant to these topics were selected for inclusion in this review. Summaries are presented and organized by those 12 themes: (1) status of orchestra programs, (2) string-teacher training programs, (3) teaching styles, (4) vibrato and left-hand technique, (5) bowing and articulation, (6) intonation, (7) body issues, (8) concert programming, (9) adjudication/evaluation, (10) extra-musical effects of string classes, (11) community partnerships, and (12) important historical figures. From this review of string literature, it is the authors’ hope readers apply these reported findings in their teaching, identify areas in need of more research, and continue to engage in meaningful string research.