Research shows that educational outcomes are no different for pupils in single-grade and multigrade classes. However, little is known about the instructional practices of multigrade teachers. What is known suggests that multigrade teachers tend to employ instructional practices that are not likely to facilitate effective teaching and learning. The…

Little is known about differences in middle school students' motivation and the motivational climate provided across rural and urban settings. We examined change in middle school students' personal mastery goals and perceptions of mastery goal structures in their classes. Results showed students' personal mastery goals and perceptions of mastery…

Rural children and youth represent a substantial minority of U.S. students. The author of this commentary contends that the unique educational needs of rural communities have been largely ignored by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) and that rural schools are treated as the "poor country cousins" of the U.S. education system. Recent efforts…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether music instruction was related to significant gains in the development of young children's phonemic awareness, particularly in their phoneme-segmentation fluency. Beginning in January 2004 and continuing through the end of April 2004, each of four intact classrooms of kindergarten children (n =…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between music training and musical complexity and focus of attention to melody or harmony. Participants (N = 192) were divided into four groups: university jazz majors (n = 64), other university music majors (n = 64), high school instrumentalists (n = 32), and junior high…

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice and experienced teachers' ratings and comments on teacher effectiveness and student learning after observing videotaped music classes. Comparisons were made among experience levels of observers and between focus of attention of observation. Subjects for the study included college junior and…

The purpose of this study was to identify behavioral differences between children who dropped out of piano lessons and those who continued for 3 years. Two videotaped first-year lessons of 14 pairs of piano students were systematically observed to record the duration or frequency of occurrence of selected student and teacher behaviors. Students in…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate aspects of vibrato performance among high school and university string players. The main questions were to determine whether students consistently initiate vibrato in an upward or downward direction and whether players vibrate continuously when performing slurs. Forty high school and university…

We investigated the state of music education in government primary schools in the Cape Peninsula (Western Cape Province, South Africa) as perceived by the general class teacher. Since the first democratic elections in South Africa (1994), the entire primary and secondary school education system has changed drastically in terms of content, and…

The impact of the radio in the 1930s can be compared to the force of change in people's lives today caused by current technology. Marguerite V. Hood (1903-92), a recognized leader in the music education profession during the 1930s, understood the importance of music education radio broadcasts for rural one-room schools and music education classes.…

One hundred eighteen middle school students from three different settings listened individually to a music excerpt and a prose excerpt that were each 3.5 minutes long. As they listened, they clicked a computer touchpad whenever they were distracted either by thoughts or external events, then refocused on the holistic listening task. After…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between singing achievement and developmental tonal aptitude for students in kindergarten through third grade. In addition, we investigated whether singing achievement differs according to grade level or school setting. Subjects (N = 162) were randomly selected kindergarten, first-,…

The National String Project Consortium was designed to encourage string education majors to become string teachers and to stimulate growth of new school orchestra programs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which these goals were accomplished across 13 university sites in 2003-2004. Survey data were obtained from project…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of sex and race identification on the assignment of instruments to beginning band students. Participants (N = 201) were music educators solicited by university professors across the United States. Participants completed an online survey about instrument assignments. Half the participants were…

This is the third study in a line of inquiry whose purpose has been to develop a theoretical model of selected extra musical variables' influence on solo and small-ensemble festival ratings. Authors of the second of these (Bergee & McWhirter, 2005) had used binomial logistic regression as the basis for their model-formulation strategy. Their…