This dissertation analyzes data in order to answer the research question, "Do eighth grade students who have participated regularly in their school band programs for four consecutive years achieve higher scores in New Jersey's Grade Eight PARCC Assessment than students of similar ability who do not play a musical instrument?" Data was…

Comparative analysis examined responses on a descriptive questionnaire from 267 students in grades 6, 7, and 8. The study compared duration of and participation in music instruction, types of musical instruments learned, and experience in musical ensembles to scores from the state English language arts assessment. Analysis of results included…

Purpose: Entrepreneurship education is recommended for implementation throughout the entire educational path. However, there have been challenges in implementing entrepreneurship education for many kinds of students, especially in non-business education. The purpose of this paper is to ask how 15-year-old students in Finnish basic education are…

A comparative analysis was used to study the results from a descriptive survey of selected middle school students in Grades 6, 7, and 8. Student responses to the survey tool was used to compare multiple variables of music participation and duration of various musical activities, such as singing and performing on instruments, to the mathematics…

This report presents findings about the Afterschool Intensive Strings Program in 2015-16, which provides instruction to students with limited access to music education. The evaluation examines how participation in the program affects students' academic achievement, non-academic skills, and musical skills and knowledge.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of music practice instruction on middle school band students' ability to articulate and incorporate practice strategies. Participants were middle school band students at a large suburban middle school (N = 105). Using a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design, participants were divided…

In the present study, relationships between two components of self-regulation (self-efficacy and self-evaluation) and gender, school level, instrument family, and music performance were examined. Participants were 340 middle and high school band students who participated in one of two summer music camps or who were members of a private middle…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between eighth-grade violinists' pitch perception and instrument tuning skill. The perceptual task was a researcher-developed computer-based Violin Tuning Perception Test. The instrument tuning task involved tuning two violins, one mistuned flat and the other mistuned sharp. Participants (N…

The purpose of this study was to investigate intermediate musicians' self-regulated practice behaviors. Thirty sixth- through eighth-grade students were observed practicing band repertoire individually for 20 min. Practice sessions were coded according to practice frame frequency and duration, length of musical passage selected, most prominent…

This study's purposes were to develop a rating scale for midlevel band performance and validate a theoretical structure for the scale. Research questions were (a) What qualities describe excellent seventh- and eighth-grade band performance? (b) What items constitute a Midlevel Band Performance Rating Scale (MBPRS)? (c) How reliable is the MBPRS?…

Self- and peer assessments are becoming more popular in classrooms, but there are few data on the reliability and validity of such assessments performed by school children. Because these factors are greatly affected by the number of raters, we conducted two studies to determine the rating behaviours of teenagers in self- and peer assessments, and…

According to music educators, persistence beyond a student's initial enrollment in middle and high school music is a problem; however, there has been little research to substantiate this claim. Although several recent large-scale, longitudinal studies of initial selection into music classes have been conducted, longitudinal studies on who…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a beginning jazz improvisation learning environment for middle school instrumentalists, including whether one of two instructional sequences of harmonic form improvisation tasks better supported four outcomes: achievement, self-assessment, self-efficacy, and motivation. Over 12…

This action research study utilized a quasi-experimental design to examine the effect of research-based music classroom assessment techniques on the students' performance in flute recorder education of one group using the pre-test and post-test design. The study used a purposive sampling of 30 eighth grade junior high school students from the…

Although flow theory is one way of measuring the quality of a student's experience in a music ensemble, the majority of flow research utilizes samples of high school or collegiate level musicians thus causing us to generalize findings to young adolescent (middle school) populations. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, the purpose of…