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- Creators: Humphreys, Jere Thomas
- Creators: Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability
- Member of: Faculty and Staff
- Member of: ASU Scholarship Showcase
An overview of music education research in the United States, divided into historical, philosophical, and empirical research modes and topics. Included are discussions of the major topic areas investigated, publication venues, and the relative size of each enterprise. Research efforts are limited to some extent by lack of agreed-upon goals for music education, and there has been relatively few attempts to develop sociological research in music education. Also needed are more cross-cultural, international efforts in music education, starting with sharing results.
The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between school music participation and a composite measure of academic achievement in American schools. The authors examined the first (baseline) year of a longitudinal study commissioned by the National Center for Education Statistics, conducted in 1988 (NELS:88/94 Data Analysis system, with Additional Systems for High School and Beyond and the National Longitudinal Study of 1972, NCES, 1996). The data set contains information on more than 23,000 American middle school students, and is thought to be representative of the national as a whole.
Several previous researchers employing causal modeling techniques have found relationships between extracurricular activities and education attainment as measured by standardized academic achievement tests. In music, students with school band and orchestra experience make significantly higher grades in high school mathematics, English, and social science than do non-performing students, and instrumental music instruction seems to improve scores on tests of spatial-temporal ability, which is thought to correlate with ability in mathematics.
The present study confirmed previous findings on relationships among music participation and academic achievement. Significantly more students in school music choral or instrumental groups ranked above the 50th percentile in academic grades than did other students (p < .05). For instrumental students, these results held true for all four socioeconomic quartiles, for both boys and girls, and for all races/ethnicities. For choral students, only students in the third and fourth quartiles and Caucasian students ranked significantly higher than other students.
Today, when we think of policymaking we think first of the nation-state, the world’s foremost political entity, although other types of entities generate policies as well. Regardless of the source, in practice policy-making often represents the interests of political and other special groups. Far too often, policies purported to support aspects of culture such education, music, and the other arts reflect interests that have little or nothing to do with education or the arts. The process of establishing connections across numerous realms of human discourse and activity, called globalization, is increasing at a dizzying rate.
Educational policies increasingly aim toward training people to think independently and creatively and to work productively in small groups, both necessary attributes in an environment that requires the production, marketing, and distribution of new goods and services to individuals and increasingly numerous and diverse niche groups. Arts education is now seen as an effective means for helping students develop their individual creative abilities and for learning to work together in small groups. An additional reason is that unique, diverse experiences in the arts can be linked to standards of excellence applied to the development of the specialized high-quality goods and services demanded by the global economy.
Many countries are in the process of modernizing, which means, among other things, that their population growth is slowing while education, health care, transportation, and communication are improving. The results of modernization are political, economic, social, and technological. Results of modernization and implications for music, education, and music education include:
1. Increasing political egalitarianism implies less censorship of music, education, and music
education.
2. Increasing wealth should lead to more access to music instruction and technology.
3. More formal education will provide more opportunities for music education for children and
university students.
4. Smaller families could lead to more reliance on institutions for music instruction.
5. Increasing social problems, including weaker community ties, may lead to more reliance on
institutions for music instruction and less interest in folk music.
6. Greater separation of church and state will result in less teaching of religious music.
7. Technological innovations will lead to more and different electronic teaching of music.
8. More multitasking will require the teaching of music technology.
9. Increasing multiculturalism will require ongoing examinations of which music to teach.
10. Advancing popular culture will result in more popular music being taught.
More egalitarian societies may also require more practice-oriented and less intellectual approaches to music. Professional practice in modernizing countries will tend more toward inclusion and less toward exclusion.
تخضع العديد من البلدان لعملية تحديث، وهذا يعني من زوايا أخرى، أن النمو السكاني ضعيف في حين أن التعليم والرعاية الصحية والنق والاتصالات في تقدم. نتائج التطوير منها سياسية،اقتصادية، اجتماعية، وتكنولوجية. تشمل نتائج التطوير والآثار المترتبة على الموسيقى، والتعليم، والتربية الموسيقية: (1) زيادة المساواة السياسية تؤدي إلى تخفيف الرقابة على الموسيقى، والتعليم، والتربية الموسيقية، (2) ارتفاع مستوى المعيشة يؤدي إلى خلق فرص الحصول على تعلم الموسيقى والتكنولوجيا (3) التعليم الرسمي سيوفر المزيد من الفرص لتدريس الموسيقى للأطفال وطلاب الجامعات، (4) إمكانية الاعتماد على معاهد تعليم الموسيقى من قبل الأسر الصغيرة (5) زيادة المشاكل الاجتماعية، بما في ذلك المجمعات الضعيفة، قد يؤدي إلى مزيد من الاعتماد على معاهد تعليم الموسيقى وقلة الاهتمام في تعلم الموسيقى الشعبية. (6) الفصل بين الكنيسة والدولة يؤدي إلى قلة تدريس الموسيقى الدينية. (7) الابتكارات التكنولوجية ستؤدي إلى زيادة تعلم الموسيقى الالكترونية. 8) تعدد المهام تتطلب المزيد من تدريس الموسيقى التكنولوجية. (9) زيادة التعددية الثقافية يتطلب الامتحانات الجارية منها لتعليم الموسيقى، و(10) تقدم الثقافة الشعبية سيؤدي إلى زيادة الطلب على دراستها. أكثر المجتمعات التي يوجد فيها مساواة تتطلب إلى مزيد من التدريب العملي للموسيقى على حساب النهج الفكري. الممارسة المهنية في البلدان المتطورة تميل أكثر نحو الشمولية وتستبعد الإقصاء.
