Date of Award

Fall 1999

Project Type

Dissertation

Program or Major

Education

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

First Advisor

M Daniel Smith

Abstract

Two volunteer cooperative teams of ninth grade girls were studied for six months to discover whether and how they learned to read music. The two teams represented novice students and students who had received private instruction. Study teams represented the population of the freshman Girls Chorus. Teams met regularly during daily chorus rehearsals, with only occasional help from the director. These meetings were analyzed through video tape recordings to observe if students employed traditional teaching and learning strategies to assist each other in learning. It was determined that team members regularly use certain teaching and learning strategies to assist in the cooperative constructing of their knowledge. Chorus members demonstrated significant gains (P = .05) in their ability to read music using the Iowa Tests of Music Literacy LEVEL 1. It was concluded that this cooperative learning method is an effective alternative for teaching chorus students to read music.

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