The effect of aural instruction with tonal and rhythm patterns from Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory on the aural discrimination abilities of second-grade students
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Karen Sanders Thomas (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Donald Hodges
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aural instruction with tonal and rhythm patterns from Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory on the tonal and rhythmic discrimination abilities of second-grade students. The secondary purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a relationship among the extent of music experience, preference for music activities, and the tonal and rhythmic discrimination abilities across four groups of second-grade students. Participants were four intact second-grade general music classes from one elementary school in North Carolina. The classes were assigned randomly to three experimental groups and one control group. I instructed the experimental groups using Edwin Gordon’s aural-based tonal patterns in Music Learning Theory for ten minutes each class period during a treatment week and rhythm patterns the next treatment week. The experimental groups were assigned randomly to one of three conditions: (a) playing instruments only, (b) singing and chanting only, and (c) singing, chanting, and playing instruments. The control group did not receive tonal and rhythm pattern instruction; instead, I instructed participants for ten minutes each class period using classroom activities from the Spotlight on Music second-grade textbook series. At the beginning of the study, all participants were administered the Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA) to measure their developmental music aptitude. Participants were administered a researcher-created questionnaire to determine the extent of their musical experience and their music activity preferences. Some students were selected at random to be interviewed by me to provide additional information about their questionnaire responses. At the end of the study, all participants were administered the PMMA as a posttest. The research study period was August 31 – December 16, 2015, with twelve weeks allotted for the instructional treatment period. Using the pretest as the covariate, an ANCOVA was performed to determine whether there were any significant main effects or interaction effects of instruction. Results of the ANCOVA analyses indicated there were no significant main effects or interaction effects of instruction for any of the PMMA subtests at the .05 level of significance. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine whether there were significant relationships among the extent of music experience, preference for music activities, and the PMMA scores. Results indicated that preference for jazz and the genre labeled “other” (i.e., rap, hip-hop, and “Kidz Bop”) were small, negative predictors for PMMA tonal scores. Preference for singing as a favorite music activity was a small, negative predictor for PMMA rhythm scores, and preference for the pop genre was a small, positive predictor for PMMA rhythm scores. Jazz genre preference was a small, negative predictor for PMMA composite scores, while pop genre preference was a small, positive predictor. The control group, as compared to the three experimental groups, was a small, positive predictor for PMMA rhythm scores only. Based on these results, aural instruction with tonal and rhythm patterns from Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory did not have a significant effect on the tonal and rhythmic discrimination abilities of second-grade students.
The effect of aural instruction with tonal and rhythm patterns from Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory on the aural discrimination abilities of second-grade students
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Created on 5/1/2016
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2016
- Keywords
- Aural discrimination, Aural instruction, Edwin Gordon, Music education, Music Learning Theory, Music patterns
- Subjects
- Music $x Instruction and study
- Musical perception in children
- Auditory perception in children
- Gordon, Edwin, $d 1927-