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Despite the extensive coursework and training in teacher preparation programs focusing on diverse populations, many teachers feel underprepared to meet the needs of emerging subcultures in the elementary music classroom. Over the years, the term diversity has grown beyond ethnicity and requires continued study and attention. This qualitative study explores the perspectives of elementary music educators about diverse populations of exceptional students with Other Health Impairments (OHI), defined as asthma, ADD, ADHD, diabetes, epilepsy, heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome, in their classrooms. The results of this study identify the existing and emerging subgroups within elementary music classrooms, expose training deficiencies, and suggest necessary changes and additions to teacher training and development programs. Societal changes lead to the emergence of new subcultures and new music teachers, requiring current and improved training to provide quality music instruction to every student regardless of their background. Elementary music teachers often service the entire student body, sometimes in mixed groupings, creating a unique classroom dynamic requiring comprehensive training. They must understand and train to be able to address every situation possible. This study will expand the music education profession, building highly qualified teachers, programs, and students. This study shows the gap in teacher preparation and provides useful suggestions on how to improve degree programs and continuing education opportunities, creating an inclusive environment. The implications of this study reach beyond the subject of music and music educator training, potentially revolutionizing general education concerning diversity in terms of exceptional students.

Teaching chorus presents many challenges to directors and one of the main challenges that directors face is teaching their students how to read music. Many students rely on rote teaching or aural repetition to learn music, and this can prevent students from becoming proficient musicians. Bryan Rante researched different ways to assess the choral group and simultaneously teach them how to read music proficiently. The curriculum used for this research was Andy Beck's Sing at First Sight: Foundations in Choral Singing Level 1 & 2 to help students learn how to sight-sing and become confident in reading music. The curriculum was chosen because it kept the students engaged and interested in learning more sight-singing skills. The students were encouraged to develop their own confidence in their voice and their abilities to new music with others. The goal of this research was to find an engaging and effective curriculum that helped students develop interest in the class and develop each student's musicianship as well. The findings show that if the curriculum is used correctly, it can help any director find a starting point for assessing the choir and making the task fun and engaging.

"The purpose of this study is to provide a descriptive analysis of high school choral teachers' inclusion of popular music in current teaching practices by (a) determining the frequency of inclusion, (b) developing a profile of teachers, schools, and choral programs that include popular music in the curriculum, (c) determining which demographic characteristics affected the amount of popular music included, and (d) developing a profile of popular music implementation details. The Popular Music Survey, a researcher designed online survey, was developed to collect demographic data and information concerning the participants' inclusion of popular music in their high school choral classrooms. Participants were high school choral teachers in the Commonwealth of Virginia (n = 104). Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Macintosh, Version 22.0. Results of the study revealed that 100% of participants include popular music in the choral curriculum as performance literature and/or instructional materials. Descriptive statistics of demographic data of the teacher, school, choral program, and ensemble were used to develop a profile to describe the typical high school choral teacher who includes popular music. Descriptive statistics were also used to develop a profile to describe how high school choral teachers included popular music in the choral classroom. The majority of participants (n = 91, 87.4%) responded that the percentage of popular music performed was 30% or less of their total performance literature. Pearson Chi-square and one-way analysis of variance were used to determine the extent to which popular music was included in the high school choral curriculum. The achievement of a master's degree was the only teacher characteristic that significantly affected the amount of popular music included in the high school choral curriculum (p = .028). Participants with a master's degree included more popular music than participants who did not have a master's degree. Implications for music education were discussed in relation to the findings of the current study. Recommendations were made for future research regarding the inclusion of popular music in choral classrooms, as well as in other areas of music education."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

As a music educator actively involved in teaching learners from ages five to seventeen years over the past nineteen years, the researcher has noted the reading abilities of the learners drop over the years. This could be due to various factors such as large class sizes, changes in curriculum, teacher inadequacy and parents' lack of involvement due to work commitments. It is for this reason that it is important for the educator to be able to use various methods to help with reading development, especially in the young learner. Growing research has indicated that music activities may be beneficial for other academic studies and in this study the focus will be on the reading development of the Foundation Phase learner. There is a relationship between music skills and reading, and studies have proved that increased learning in one area may increase outcomes in another. This study will evaluate whether the learner involved in various music activities has shown an improvement in reading scores from Grade One through to Grade Three.

The world we live in today is increasingly a global society. As such, the various cultures of the world come into contact with one another more often. Students today need to have experiences with different cultures in order to participate effectively in this globally minded world. An excellent way to expose children to these cultures is through the use of world music in the general music classroom. The need for world music from a music education standpoint has been addressed over the past few decades. However, little has been done to address the teaching methods associated with world music or the process of selecting materials for classroom use. The two main research questions in this project seek to determine how the lesson structure influences the learning of world music for students in an elementary music classroom and how to find relevant world music materials for use in an elementary general music classroom. These questions are addressed primarily through observations in elementary general music classrooms with support from questionnaires from elementary music teacher participants. The general result of this project concludes that world music is most effectively taught by combining music objectives with world music samples. The other option for teaching world music is to present students with a separate unit dedicated to world music or the music of one culture. As described in the following report, this method leads to time constraints in the curriculum as well as low retention of information on the part of students. Teachers who present world music throughout the curriculum with the focus on other musical objectives note that their students are more engaged and are more easily able to recall information after the lesson. The task of finding useful, accurate, and inviting classroom materials is also addressed through the demonstration of a textbook comparison model which is adapted from the article "QFD-based Technical Textbook Evaluation - Procedure and a Case.