Date of Award

8-1-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Teacher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if relationships exist between the musical achievement, musical aptitude, and academic achievement of the eighth grade instrumental music students at Bryan Middle School of the Omaha Public School District in Omaha, Nebraska. Students' musical achievement was tested with Richard Colwell's Music Achievement Test, test 1. Students' musical aptitude was tested with Edwin Gordon's Advanced Measures of Music Audition and academic achievement was assessed using the subjects' grade point average. Three hypotheses and three research questions investigated if relationships existed and if so, to what degree. Using t-tests and Spearman's Rank Order Correlation Coefficient, the researcher found the results of hypotheses and research questions. The three hypotheses are as follows: 1) Students will demonstrate scores unequal in the area of music achievement and music aptitude, 2) Students will demonstrate higher scores in the area of academic achievement than in the area of achievement, 3) Students will demonstrate parallel scores in the areas of musical aptitude and academic achievement. The three research questions are as follows: 1) Does a relationship exist between the scores of musical achievement and musical aptitude? 2) Does a relationship exist between the scores of musical achievement and academic achievement outside of music? 3) Does a relationship exist between the scores of musical aptitude and academic achievement outside of music? The eighth grade instrumental music students found of Bryan Middle School demonstrated equal abilities in the areas of musical achievement and musical aptitude. Despite literature findings of a strong correlation between academic achievement and musical achievement, the subjects' scored highest in the area of academic achievement. Results of the study encourages further research into factors which may contribute to the discrepancies seen in the Bryan Middle School Instrumental Music Students. With the aid of the standardized music tests, further research could examine if specific instrumental groups are more or less likely to be deficient in certain areas; such as pitch reading, rhythm reading, and pitch/interval discrimination. The researcher believes that with additional educational resources, the instrumental music students of Bryan Middle School could raise their performance abilities, musical achievement, musical aptitude, and academic achievement.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Teacher Education and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha. Copyright 1999 Victoria Van Beusekom.

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