Music Education at Penn State
Graduate Research
Recent MME research includes:
Heidi Adomshick - Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Race/Ethnicity and The Relationship to the Musical Listening Preferences of Young Adolescents
This study is in-progress and will seek to extend on previous research in the area of music listening preferences. First, a profile of the current musical listening preferences of young adolescents will be sought and then an examination of the relationship among gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and race/ethnicity and the young adolescents’ musical listening preferences will occur. The questions of focus are: 1)What are the current musical listening preference of young adolescents when they are voluntarily listening to music? 2) Does a relationship exist between the attributes of gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity and the musical listening preferences of young adolescents? From examination of previous literature on the topic of music preferences, several attributes were defined as influences on music preferences of an individual. It was also determined from the review of literature that more research is necessary because of limitations of musical genres used or diversity in the population sample. This study seeks to extend on the previous research and it will focus on young adolescents from the Southwestern Pennsylvania area. Young adolescents can be defined as those students in grades six through eight. They will be contacted through the school districts in the Southwestern Pennsylvania area and a questionnaire will be distributed to the participants after consent and assent to participate is received. The questionnaire used will yield nominal, ordinal and continuous data, then will be coded and analyzed in these manners: descriptive, bi-variate comparative and correlational.
Joe Scheivert - Describing High School Instrumental Music Students' Heightened Musical Experiences
The purpose of this study was to examine high school instrumental music students’ heightened musical experiences. In the first phase of this study, 35 Pennsylvania high school seniors completed a written free-form questionnaire asking for a description of their strongest, most intense experience with music. Based on written responses and willingness to participate, 10 participants took part in focus group interviews to examine their responses in depth and compare/contrast specific aspects of the experiences. The written responses and interview data were coded and categorized according to Gabrielsson and Lindström Wik’s (2003) previous work in this area. An analysis of the data will show if the high school students’ responses were found to be consistent with the categories determined by Gabrielsson and Lindström-Wik.
Gabrielsson, A., & Lindström Wik, S. (2003). Strong experiences related to music: A descriptive system. Musicae Scientiae, 7(2), 157-217.
Amy Sines - The Relationship Between Gender Labeling Singing and Attitude and Participation of Students Grades K-5
Over the past three hundred years, the role of singing in the United States has slowly changed from being primarily masculine to feminine. According to statistics from 1982, the ratio of females to males in singing ensembles was 5:2 (Koza, 1993/94). Many choral directors can attest to the limited number of males compared to females who participate in their ensembles. This uneven distribution of voicing leads to issues with balance, blend, and repertoire selection. Substantial research has been conducted on sex and gender issues related to singing, however it is still unclear as to when children begin to associate singing with the feminine gender.
The purpose of this study is to isolate the age at which children begin to gender label singing as feminine. The researcher will conduct two surveys with students in Kindergarten through fifth grade. One survey is researcher designed and will evaluate student’s participation and attitude toward singing and other musical activities. The second survey is an adaptation of the COAT-AM. This survey measures children’s attitudes toward gender preference for participation in various occupations, activities and personality traits.
Johanna Steinbacher- The Effect of Melodic Contour on Rhythm Reading Comprehension among Beginning Band Students
The purpose of this study is to determine the nature of the relationship between melodic contour and rhythm reading comprehension among beginning band students. For further focus, the following questions will be posed: 1) what is the nature of the relationship between melodic contour that moves by step and rhythm reading comprehension among beginning band students and 2) what is the nature of the relationship between melodic contour that moves by leap and rhythm reading comprehension among beginning band students?
The participants in this study will be selected from those fifth grade beginning band students in an intermediate school in southeast Pennsylvania who volunteer to participate in this study. During the fall of the 2007-2008 school year, subjects will be administered a rhythm pattern selection test developed by the researcher. During this test subjects will hear a recorded rhythm pattern in one of three presentation formats: rhythm with no melody, rhythm with melody that moves by step, or rhythm with melody that moves by leap. Subjects will then select the pattern he or she believed is the pattern that was performed out of three written choices.
Scores will be statistically analyzed and will be compared by presentation method, instrument group (woodwind, brass, or percussion), and amount of participation in musical activities outside of the school setting. Results of this study will be forthcoming.
Rebekah Stuetz - Middle School Choral Students’ Self-Perception of Their Sight-Singing Achievement
The purpose of this in-progress study is to explore the relationship between middle school choral students’ self-perception of their sight-singing achievement and their actual sight- singing ability, and to explore the factors students report as playing a role in their sight-singing ability. Participants are seventh and eighth grade choral students from a suburban public middle school located outside a metropolitan area in central Pennsylvania. This study will be conducted in two phases; the first will be quantitative in nature while the second will be narrative.
The first phase of the study will be comparative between the subjects’ actual and perceived sight-singing ability. A researcher devised questionnaire (based on a questionnaire created by Henry, 2005) will be distributed to subjects. This questionnaire will request demographic information followed by a series of questions that address their perception of their sight-singing ability. Following the questionnaire each subject will be given a short sight-singing task. This task will be recorded for analysis. The sight-singing task will be analyzed by two independent, trained judges. The judges are experienced middle school music teachers and measures will be taken to insure intra- and inter-judge reliability. Following the analysis of the questionnaire and the subjects’ actual sight-singing ability, descriptive information will be examined using measures of central tendency and a comparison of the scores will be made using a correlation.
The second phase of the study will be narrative in nature allowing for a deeper understanding of student perception. Subjects who have a vastly different perception of their sight-singing ability verses their actually ability (both positive and negative correlations) will be asked to complete a single, in-person interview with the researcher. Questions in this interview will stem from the student’s responses on the self-perception questionnaire. The results of this study will contribute to our understanding of the role of students’ self-perception in regards to sight-singing, in turn laying a foundation for new possibilities for sight-singing instruction.