Morris Inquiry Project 1

QUESTIONS 

1. Why is it important for elementary schoolers to learn general music at their age? 

2. What is considered to be “general music” and how do we as music educators go along teaching 

it? 

3. How would you create a curriculum for a general music class that’s both engaging and 

educational for elementary schoolers? 

4. What is the main goal to have when teaching elementary schoolers a general music class? And 

with that main goal in mind, why is it the main goal? 

5. Depending on the type of area you might live in (rural, urban, etc.), what can you do like their 

general music educator to encourage their communities with music? 

6. Everyone has different views and takes on what general music is to them. If you were to teach 

general music to a class of elementary schoolers, what would you teach them the most about 

and why? 

7. General music can combine both vocal and instrumental techniques within the class along with 

general vocabulary for music. As the instructor for this class, would you emphasize one thing 

over the other? If so, why would it be best to do so? 

8. Some general music educators leave some important things about music out of their curriculum 

and lesson plans (expression, emotion, etc.). Why do think this is wrong to do and how would 

you be able to fix this issue? 

9. According to Forbes Magazine, students intend to do better within Science, Math, and English if 

they participate in any music classes. As a music educator, why do you think that is for 

students? 

10. Music can sometimes be heard from people who’ve taken music classes that it can be like 

learning another language. For a general music class for elementary schoolers, why do you 

think this isn’t something we should view general music as for that age? 

   
Morris Inquiry Project 2

PROPOSAL 

Research​ ​Question:​ What is the purpose of general music in elementary schools? 

Rationale​: Music is very important to have within our lives. Without music, at least for me, everyone’s 

perception on everything can be different. But of course, this can vary from person to person based on 

how they interpret music to themselves. With this in mind, by looking at a broader picture, what is the 

purpose of having general music in the first place? Why is it so crucial to have general music within the 

classroom especially? Why show students that don’t appreciate music as much as others the concepts of 

general music practices? For this inquiry project, I hope to research why it is so important for students, 

elementary schoolers especially, to have general music within their classroom through pedagogical 

approaches, content, and differences in experiences. The reason I’ve decided to focus on this topic is 

because I knew from a very young age that music was something fun to go to and learn about with my 

classmates, but for what reasons did I like music? As I research about why general music is something 

important to have for elementary schoolers, I hope to find things about how creativity can be expanded 

for students not just from playing instruments but within their everyday lives. I also hope to find 

something about how music can change a student’s perception on how they view their world and their 

community around them. Most importantly, I hope to find within this research something about learning 

how different cultures learn and practice music and teaching those concepts to students so they can 

appreciate how students from other countries learn general music. 

   
Morris Inquiry Project 3

The State of Music in the Elementary School: The Principal’s Perspective (Abril & Gault, 2006) 

APA Citation information​:  

Abril, C. p., & Gault, B. M. (2006, November 30). The State of Music in the Elementary School: The Principal's 

Perspective. J
​ ournal of Research in Music Education​, 5
​ 4​(1), 6-20.  

Purpose of the Study: 

The purpose of this study is to gain a perspective from principals in elementary schools about their views towards 

having general music for younger students and why they think it is important to have general music classes. 

Methods and Participants: 

Surveys were taken within various backgrounds (rural/urban) on general thoughts about how impactful general music 

is within a child’s education. The participants are all principals of different elementary schools 

Key Findings: 

- 92.5% reported that music education was a required component of the elementary school curriculum. 

Furthermore, 94.9% claimed to employ a music specialist at their school. This is evidence of support for 

music education by administrators and policymakers at schools represented in this study. 

- The percentage of principals who responded with either negative or strongly negative responses was as 

follows: ‘budget/finances’ (55.2%), ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ (45.1 %), ‘scheduling’ (40.1%), and 

‘standardized tests’ (34.4%). The factors that were perceived to pose positive or strongly positive effects on 

the program included: ‘students’ (92%), ‘parents’ (90.1 %), and ‘the music teacher’ (87.8%) 

Discussion Points: 

- Investigated school principals’ perceptions of learning outcomes arising from elementary general music 

education 

- Asked to rate the degree to which certain variables affected music programs at their schools 

Your Comments/Questions: 

Really intuitive because the majority of principals think it matters to have general music within the elementary school. 

My question for this concept is how can a school’s budget affect whether or not a program can have a general music 

class? 

 
Morris Inquiry Project 4

Development of Music Creativity among Elementary School Students (Kiehn, 2003) 

APA Citation information​:  

Kiehn, M. T. (2003, October 15). Development of Music Creativity Among Elementary School Students. ​Sage Journals.  

Purpose of the Study: 

The purpose of this study was to compare three different grade levels on their ability to improvise musical creatively 

Methods and Participants: 

The participants used for this research were three randomly chosen elementary schools and they used the “Vaughan 

Test of Musical Creativity (TMC), a measure of music improvisational creativity, and the Torrance Tests of Creative 

Thinking (TTCT), a standardized test of divergent thinking which measures figural/artistic creativity through pictorial 

drawing tasks” 

Key Findings: 

- From the TMC test results, boys have a higher mean score for musical creativity than girls (29.33 > 27.59) 

- For the TTCT, correlations for subscale and composite scores between measures, however, were generally 

of a much smaller magnitude, ranging from .14 to .25 with a median coefficient of .21; and only 3 of 9 

reached statistical significance  

Discussion Points: 

- A number of minor revisions of the Vaughan test could produce an instrument suitable for measuring music 

improvisational ability in students at various grade levels (K-12) 

- With regard to the limitations of this study, several improvements should be considered in future research.  

Your Comments/Questions: 

It was really interesting to see that at this age level, boys tend to have more creative abilities than girls. Although I 

agree with what what said about how they should improve their testing so that it benefits everyone much better. 

Something that I would want to know a little bit more is that what would you consider doing to change the way you 

can test a child’s ability on musical creativity? 

 
Morris Inquiry Project 5

Experience of Musical Performance Anxiety in Elementary School Children (Ryan, 2005) 

APA Citation information​:  

Ryan, C. (2005, November). Experience of Musical Performance Anxiety in Elementary School Children. ​American 

Psychological Association. 

Purpose of the Study: 

The purpose of this study is to examine performance anxiety in young children 

Methods and Participants: 

Children of all ages (5-13) participated within this study, and they measured students through State-Trait Anxiety 

Inventory for Children (STAIC), which measures different variations of anxiety amongst different elementary school 

students. 

Key Findings: 

- Children across all grades would perceive greater anxiety on the day of the concert 

- As boys get older, there’s a sudden increase in anxiety while in girls it’s a decrease 

Discussion Points: 

- State anxiety rose significantly from the regular school day to the day of the school concert and did not 

interact with grade or gender seems to indicate that children as young as the third grade do experience an 

increased level of anxiety prior to a school concert 

- The development of an appropriate measure for examining this issue in young musicians would be 

beneficial to the overall progress of research in the area of performance anxiety 

Your Comments/Questions: 

I thought this was a very interesting read because I didn’t even consider that general music can play a role in 

performance anxiety and how we as educators can use this to help better prepare them for when they go take tests 

or audition for ensembles when they reach middle or high school. My only question from this research would be how 

to encourage every student they have the musical abilities to perform something beautiful, even when they doubt that 

they can and tell themselves they can’t do this?   

Morris Inquiry Project 6

Multicultural Music Instruction in the Elementary School: What Can Be Achieved? (Edwards, 1998) 

APA Citation information​:  

Edwards, K. L. (1998, October 1). Multicultural Music Instruction in the Elementary School: What Can Be Achieved? 

JSTOR. 

Purpose of the Study: 

The purpose of this study was to investigate students' achievement following a model unit on American Indian music 

that utilized four different instructional approach 

Methods and Participants: 

The participants of this study were fourth graders from five very different classes and they were exposed to learning 

about the varied aspects of American Indian culture through music 

Key Findings: 

- Can achieve a wide variety of content and skills when studying American Indian music, and much more. 

Results from all four treatment groups indicate not only achievements in content knowledge but also 

‘multicultural achievements’ toward intercultural sensitivity. 

- Differences in breadth and depth of student comments are evident when comparing and contrasting the 

four treatment groups. 

Discussion Points: 

- The qualitative data in this study reflect not so much what knowledge and skills the students actually 

learned but, rather, how they defined in their own terms what they learned. 

- Music educators must address the question of approach, or decide that because the major focus of their 

curriculum is music concept-based, it is worthwhile to learn about at least one culture in an in-depth way for 

perhaps extra musical kinds of achievement. 

Your Comments/Questions: 

This was really fascinating to read because if taught properly by the instructor, students can learn many new things 

about different cultures and how they participate in music. My question for this article is what if your students come 

across this as something racist and they don’t want to participate and make fun of the different culture, how would 

an instructor handle that within that moment?   

Morris Inquiry Project 7

Comparison of the National Standards for Music Education and Elementary Music Specialists’ Use of 

Class Time (Orman, 1999) 

APA Citation information​:  

Orman, E. K. (1999, February 1). Comparison of the National Standards for Music Education and Elementary Music 

Specialists' Use of Class Time. ​Sage Journals. 

Purpose of the Study: 

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of class time in elementary general music classes in relation to 

the nine voluntary National Standards for Music Education 

Methods and Participants: 

The participants of this study were 30 elementary school specialists, all obtaining a Master’s in Music Education, and 

were recording their lectures to be seen and observed by the data collection team all together 

Key Findings: 

- The largest proportion of teacher time (46.36%) was spent talking (see Table 1). The second most 

time-consuming activity by the teacher was modeling (21.57%), defined as the teacher engaged in singing, 

playing, singing and moving, singing and playing, verbal rhythm, movement, or a combination of those 

activities with or without the students 

- Teachers spent the least amount of time (0.34%) listening to music. 

Discussion Points: 

- Observation-based studies have provided insight into the use of class time by elementary music specialists. 

- Music specialists identified singing, listening/analyzing, and evaluating as the standards with which they 

were the most comfortable, whereas composing and improvisation were identified as the most difficult to 

implement. 

Your Comments/Questions: 

This is elegant because of how thorough and complex this is, analyzing and observing every participant’s teaching style and lesson 

planning just to make sure that the national standards for music were met. A question I have from reading this research is that what 

would happen if a standard wasn’t met? How much of an impact would that cause for a student’s future interest within music?   
Morris Inquiry Project 8

Characteristics of Elementary Music Programs in Urban Schools: What Money Can Buy (Costa-Giomi, 

2008) 

APA Citation information​:  

Costa-Giomi, E. (2008, July 1). Characteristics of Elementary Music Programs in Urban Schools: What Money Can 

Buy. ​JSTOR. 

Purpose of the Study: 

The purpose of this study is to assess the status of music education in the elementary schools of a large urban 

center in Texas and to investigate possible inequalities in access to music educa- tion resources based on the racial 

and socio-economic characteristics of the student population 

Methods and Participants: 

The participants for this study were elementary school teachers in the most diverse urban school district in Texas, 

and they were sent a questionnaire about their music programs within their schools 

Key Findings: 

- A difference between the teachers of high and low economic status schools or between those of high and 

low minority schools was related to the supervision of student teachers 

- Schools with a low proportion of minority students reported having, as an average, twice as many students 

with disabilities than did the other schools 

Discussion Points: 

- Schools with fewer minorities or with lower proportions of economically disadvantaged students had more 

adequate facilities and instructional resources, more supportive and active parents, and better access to 

external sources of funding than schools with a higher proportion of minority students or disadvantaged 

students 

- More than half of all the teachers reported that the school administration was very supportive and very few 

rated the school administration as not supportive 

Your Comments/Questions: 

This was a very interesting read because I thought of finding financial issues would be something music problems 

within that type of neighborhood would be difficult to come across, but according to this study, it's not. 

 
Morris Inquiry Project 9

Themes in the Literature​: 

● Theme 1: Having Musical Creativity 

○ Kiehn, 2003 

● Theme 2: Instruction of Different Cultural Aspects in Music 

○ Edwards, 1998 

● Theme 3: Perspectives and Outcomes with General Music 

○ Abril & Gault, 2006 

○ Orman, 1999 

● Theme 4: Tolerance to Anxiety 

○ Ryan, 2005 

● Theme 5: Economic Sustainability 

○ Costa-Giomi, 2008