Search

As popular music education programs become more common, it is essential to determine what kinds of professional development experiences that are designed to help teachers include popular music into their music education classrooms are effective--keeping in mind that the inclusion of popular music in K-12 classrooms requires a change not only in instrumentation and repertoire but also pedagogical approaches. This study examined the effects of a popular music professional development initiative on more than 600 New York City urban music teachers' musicianship, their pedagogy, and their leadership skills throughout one school year. Results revealed increases in all three areas, most notably in teachers' musicianship. The study also showed an increase in teachers' positive perceptions about their music programs, specifically, their level of excitement about the state of their music program and that their music program was more effective at meeting their students' needs than it had been previously.

The researcher sought to examine gender associations across three decades to determine if changes in the sex stereotyping of musical instruments has occurred. First, the study examined the paired comparison gender-instrument rankings of 180 college students. The results confirmed a reduction of instrument gender associations reported in the 1990s. The second index of gender associations employed was the instruments that middle school children played (N = 2001). A comparison of the instruments played by boys and girls across three studies conducted in 1978, 1993, and 2007 showed little difference in the sex-by-instrument distribution. Girls played predominately flutes, violins, and clarinets, and most boys played drums, trumpets, and trombones. There was some evidence that in band settings, girls were more likely to play nonconforming gender instruments than were boys. Further studies that focus on parents' influence on children's instrument choices and the effect of ethnicity are recommended. (Contains 4 tables and 2 notes.)

This study is an examination of the influence of three orchestra/school partnerships on students' interest in instrumental music. A vocational choice survey was used to assess students' interest in instrumental music. Surveys were administered to second-through fourth-grade students at partnership and nonpartnership schools. Results indicated that there were significant differences in vocational choices between students at partnership schools and students at nonpartnership schools. Partnership students selected musician as a vocation more frequently than did nonpartnership students. In partnerships that were focused exclusively on developing students' interest in instrumental music, students selected music vocations more frequently than did students in other partnerships. Additional surveys and interviews indicated that many students in higher grades who were participating in instrumental music programs attributed their participation to partnership activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]