Jere T. Humphreys

2006 Senior Researcher Award Acceptance Address: Observations about Music Education Research in MENC'S First and Second Centuries

Jere T. Humphreys is the recipient of the MENC 2006 Senior Researcher Award. The following speech was presented on April 20, 2006, at a special session of the Society for Research in Music Education at the National Biennial In-Service Conference of MENC: The National Association for Music Education, held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Toward a reconstruction of ‘creativity’ in music education

Creativity in human endeavours is being discussed and promoted in many fields and venues throughout the Western world. In this paper I discuss reasons for the current emphasis on creativity, especially in music education. I also describe some philosophical, psychological, cultural, and political/social/economic factors that have worked for and against the teaching of creativity in school music programmes, while recognising that technology also plays an important role. No poet shall compose anything in contravention of the public standards of law and right, honour and good… –Plato (Laws: VII: 28)

Precursors of Musical Aptitude Testing: From the Greeks through the Work of Francis Galton

Carl E. Seashores tests of musical aptitude, originally published in 1919, were a logical outgrowth of first, centuries of research and thinking on sensory discrimination and specification, and second, applications to psychological research of Charles Darwins theory of evolution. These two fields came together when English anthropologist Francis Galton (1822-1911) devised tests of sensory perception to test individual mental capacity in the 1870s and 1880s. Galton, who modeled his tests on those devised previously by physicists, included measures of musical perception in his test batteries. He believed that individual differences are quantifiable and that discrete measures of sensory acuity, including musical discrimination, would provide at least an indirect measure of intelligence. Galton influenced American psychologist James Cattell (1860-1944), who in turn influenced Seashore. Because Seashore, like all experimental psychologists of his day, was a sensory psychologist, he produced tests that were criticized from the beginning for being sensory and atomistic. Nevertheless, Seashores work fired the imaginations and profoundly influenced the work of the first generation of American music education researchers.

The Child-Study Movement and Public School Music Education

The child-study movement was a late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century educational I fashion whose impetus came from the influences of Darwins Origin of Species (1859) and from the advent of empirical psychology in the 1860s and 1870s. Child-study leaders sought to reform the public schools, calling for widespread and “scientific” observation and study of children. Music educators adopted some child-study principles, incorporating them in certain vocal music series and music appreciation textbooks. These books contained, for example, materials designed to correspond to the various stages of interest and maturity in children. Several nonmusician child-study researchers began to gather data relative to musical learning, while psychological literature on music perception proliferated. Music teachers, more interested in teaching methods, left research activities to future generations of music educators.

Standardization of the Gordon Primary Measures of Music Audiation in Greece.

The purpose of this study was to standardize the Primary Measures of Music Audiation in Greece ( N = 1,188). Split-halves reliability was acceptable across grade levels (K through 3) for the Tonal and Rhythm subtests, but test—retest reliability was generally unacceptable, especially for the Rhythm subtest. Concurrent validity was mixed, with teacher ratings of musical achievement generally significantly correlated with Tonal but not Rhythm subtest scores. Composite test means were significantly higher for suburban and urban samples than for rural samples and were significantly higher for higher grade levels. Item difficulty coefficients were significantly correlated across grade levels. The Greek and U.S. composite means were similar except for a significantly higher U.S. mean for grade 1. However, when the rural subgroup was removed from the Greek sample to equate with the U.S. norming sample, there were nonsignificant differences for grades K through 1, but significant differences in favor of the Greek sample for grades 3 and 4.

Alice Carey Inskeep (1875-1942): A Pioneering Iowa Music Educator and MENC Founding Member.

The purpose of this study was to examine the professional contributions of Alice Carey Inskeep (1875-1942), who contributed significantly to music education through her positive and effective teaching, supervising, community service, and leadership in music education. Inskeep was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, and taught for five years in that citys school system after graduating from high school. She served as music supervisor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for most of the remainder of her career, where she provided progressive leadership to the schools and community. She was one of three people appointed to plan the initial meeting in Keokuk, Iowa, for what eventually became MENC: The National Association for Music Education, and she was one of sixty-nine founding members of the organization in 1907. The Keokuk meeting served as an impetus for Inskeep to travel to Chicago, where she studied with several notable music educators. Later, she sat on the organizations nominating committee, the first Educational Council (precursor to the Music Education Research Council) board of directors, and provided leadership to two of the organizations affiliates, the North Central Division and the Iowa Music Educators Association. She served as a part-time or summer faculty member at Iowa State Normal School and Coe College in Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, respectively, and the American Institute of Normal Methods in Evanston, Illinois, and Auburndale, Massachusetts.

The effects of instruction on self-assessed research knowledge, ability, and interest among Greek music educators

This study investigated the effects of a training seminar and selected background variables on Greek music teachers’ attitudes and self-evaluation regarding research. Public school, university, and conservatory teachers (n=41) participated in 16 hours of seminar instruction over a two-week period at a Greek university. The seminar provided an introduction to empirical research methods, testing, and basic statistical concepts and, procedures and an overview of music aptitude testing and the administration of selected tests. There was no significant pre-seminar difference in self-assessed interest and ability in research between participants who had and had not taken a prior research course. However, participants with prior training scored significantly higher on self-assessed knowledge of selected research concepts. A mixed-model analysis of variance indicated that the seminar instruction was effective in improving self-assessed research knowledge and interest, and that those with previous research training improved more than those without such training.

Classroom observation ability among pre-service music educators in Greece

The purpose of this study was to examine the classroom observation ability of pre-service music teachers in Greece (N = 62). Two groups of undergraduates, one near the beginning and one near the end of a two-year course sequence in teaching methods that included in-class and in-school training in observation (‘juniors’ and ‘seniors’, respectively), observed videotapes of one elementary (4th grade) and one secondary (8th grade) general music class, each being taught by its own expert music teacher. Subjects wrote comments that judges classified into subcategories within overall categories of lesson, teacher, and students. Results largely confirmed those of previous research from the USA, with the more experienced subjects making significantly more comments and both groups focusing more on teachers than on lessons or students. There were also differences between subcategories and significant interactions involving experience level and sex of the subjects. L’habileté à observer une classe chez de futurs éducateurs musicaux en Grèce L’objectif de cette étude est d’examiner les habiletés de futurs éducateurs musicaux grecs à observer une classe (N = 62). Deux groupes d’étudiants de premier cycle inscrits à un programme de deux années axées sur les méthodes d’enseignement qui comportait également un programme l’observation en classe et en milieu scolaire — un groupe presque au début de la formation et l’autre qui achève le programme (respectivement palier junior et senior) ont examiné deux enregistrements vidéos d’une classe en musique, une à l’élémentaire (4 e année), l’autre au secondaire (8e année), qui chacune était enseignée par le spécialiste en musique de l’école. Les sujets ont rédigé des commentaires que les analystes ont classifiés sous les catégories leçon, enseignant et étudiants. Les résultats ont largement confirmé ceux obtenus par des recherches antérieurement menées aux États-Unis. Les sujets plus expérimentés rédigent un nombre plus significatif de commentaires et les deux groupes se concentrent davantage sur l’enseignant plutôt que sur la leçon ou les élèves. Des différences ont également été observées dans la sous-catégorisation et dans les interactions impliquant le niveau d’expérience et le sexe des sujets. Unterrichtsbeobachtung in der Musiklehrerausbildung in Griechenland Ziel der Untersuchung war es, die Fähigkeit zur Unterrichtsbeobachtung bei Schulmusik-Studierenden in Griechenland zu prüfen (N = 62). Zwei Gruppen von Undergraduates, eine am Anfang und eine weitere am Ende eines zweijährigen Methodik-Kurses, der theoretisches und schulpraktisches Beobachtungstraining einschloss (also ‘Juniors’ und ‘Seniors’), sahen ein Videoband des Musikunterrichts in einer 4. und einer 8. Klasse, die beide vom eigenen Fachlehrer unterrichtet wurden. Die Versuchsteilnehmer schrieben Stellungnahmen, die von Juroren nach Subkategorien zum Unterricht, zum Lehrer und zu den Schülern geordnet wurden. Die Ergebnisse bestätigten im Wesentlichen die Befunde früherer Untersuchungen in den USA, wonach Personen mit größerer Unterrichtserfahrung signifikant mehr Feststellungen treffen und sich beide Gruppen mehr auf den Lehrer als auf den Unterricht und die Schüler konzentrieren. Unterschiede bestanden es auch zwischen den einzelnen Subkategorien, und es zeigten sich signifikante Interaktionen zwischen dem Grad der Erfahrung und dem Geschlecht der Teilnehmer. Capacidades de observación de aula del profesorado de educación musical en prácticas en Grecia El propósito de este estudio fue examinar las capacidades de observación en el aula del alumnado de educación musical en Grecia durante sus periodo de prácticas (N=62). Se estudiaron a dos grupos de estudiantes de primer ciclo, uno al inicio y otro al final de un curso de dos años de duración sobre métodos de enseñanza que incluía formación teórica y práctica sobre técnicas de observación. Cada grupo observó dos vídeos sobre clases de educación musical, uno en Educación Primaria (4° curso) y otro en Secundaria (8°), siendo formados cada grupo por su respectivo profesor, el tenía experiencia en observaciones. Los sujetos anotaron sus comentarios que luego los jueces clasificaron en subcategorías dentro de otras categorías más globales sobre las clases, el profesor y el alumnado. Los resultados confirmaron ampliamente los obtenidos previamente en otras investigaciones realizadas en EE.UU., encontrándose que los sujetos más experimentados hacían más comentarios significativos en ambos grupos, centrándose más en el profesorado que en las clases o en el alumnado. Se encontraron igualmente diferencias entre subcategorías e interacciones significativas con el nivel de experiencia y el sexo de los sujetos.

The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education: Its Authors, Reviewers, and Editorial Committee Members for the First Twenty Years

Several scholars have examined various demographic aspects of the music education research enterprise. For example, Steven K. Hedden reported that the number of research papers presented at conventions of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) increased from a mean of almost sixty from 1980-84 to a mean of eighty-seven from 1986-90. He also reported that few papers presented at MENC national convention research sessions had two or more authors until 1990, when approximately thirty-four percent of the papers had more than one author. Similarly, coauthored articles in the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME) increased from twenty-six percent of the total in the late 1970s to thirty-six percent by 1990. Finally, Hedden found that the majority of MENC research paper authors presented only one time at that venue between 1970-90, and only approximately twenty-four percent of JRME authors published more than once in twelve JRME volumes from the late 1970s through 1990. Brittin and Standley confirmed that finding when they noted that seventy-eight percent and eighty-one percent of authors whose articles appeared in the JRME and the Bulletin ofthe Councilfor Research in Music Education (CRME) from 1983-92 made only single-article contributions, respectively.t

Thaddeus Bolton and the First Dissertation in Music Education.

Thaddeus L. Bolton, a graduate student in psychology at Massachusettss Clark University who received a Ph.D. in 1895, appears to have written the first doctoral thesis on a topic closely related to music education. The thesis, titled “Rhythm,” predated by a few weeks a music education dissertation written by John]. Dawson, a graduate student of education at New York University. Boltons dissertation describes an experimental study of the reactions of thirty subjects to sounds occurring at different speeds and intensities and with different durations and patterns of accentuation. Boltons work on rhythm, which appears to have been among the earliest on music by an experimental psychologist, influenced Iowa music supervisor Philip C. Hayden, who applied some of Boltons findings to his teaching. Haydens desire to share his applications with others led, in large part, to the first meeting (1907) of what became the Music Supervisors National Conference.