Janice Cusano
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Abstract
Music Listening has been identified as critically
important to music education, given that the activity underlies virtually every
other musical activity. The original study examined teachers' beliefs,
materials used, genres of music preferred, reasons for choosing to teach
listening, student involvement, utilization of methods, and degree of comfort
in teaching music listening. Data were collected nationally from a
systematically selected sample of elementary music specialists (N=110).
Respondents completed a questionnaire by mail or email, and the results were
reported using frequencies, means, standard deviations, t-tests, and analysis
of variance techniques.
Part one of the
survey collected demographic data that served as independent variables for the
study: Degree, Gender, Certification, Experience Level, Type of School, Degree
of Monetary District Support, Number of Children's Choirs directed. Part two of
the survey investigated teachers beliefs and practices in teaching music
listening and these served as the dependent variables: 1) Beliefs 2) Materials
3) Reasons for Choice 4) Music Preferences in Teaching 5) Student Involvement
6) Utilization of Methods 7) Comfort in Teaching. This paper will present a
summary of findings illustrated by descriptive statistics for both parts of the
survey, however, a discussion of the causal-comparative analysis is beyond the
scope here.
The majority of
the sample held Master's degrees, were female, taught in public schools, and
had 11 or more years of experience in teaching elementary music. Close to 50%
of the sample had earned certification in both Kodaly and Orff methods, with
Kodály certification comprising the largest single certification area.
Most use excellent audio equipment, and prefer using classical or jazz music to
other genres. Music is widely chosen for length and its ability to illustrate
concepts in the curriculum with more comfort indicated for western music versus
nonwestern. Recent music series are used most (Share the Music, 1995 and Music Connection, 1995), and overall, teachers are highly comfortable
teaching music listening lessons, and reported infrequent discipline problems.
Conclusions recommend
that more research into elementary music specialists' processes and procedures
in teaching music listening be accomplished, as this is one of the least
studied areas of music education. Recommendations include further study in the
area of time spent on music listening, reasons for lack of systematic pedagogy,
exploration of new models of teaching to incorporate a wider variety of musics
being included for study in the curriculum, the role of technology, and the
incorporation and attention to approaches to music listening within
methodological study.
Janice Cusano
Department of
Music
University of
Wisconsin Green Bay
2420 Nicolet
TH 331
Green Bay WI
54301
(920)
430-9506