The Effect of Various Instructional Modes on Children's Performance of Music Concept Tasks

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of children's concepts of volume, tempo, duration, and pitch. The specific goals were to determine the effects of grade level, instructional mode, and task variables on performance of music concept tasks. The instrument chosen to measure conceptual behavior consisted of four parts, each of which contained twenty two-choice problems. The listener was asked to select the positive exemplar of a concept. Treatment consisted of four modes of instruction designated as discovery, verbal cue, verbal response, and motor response. Tests were administered to 260 children randomly selected from kindergarten, first, and second grades. The sample, which was stratified by grades, was divided into four nearly-equal treatment groups. The results led to the conclusion that age was a significant variable, particularly between kindergarten and first grade. It also was concluded that volume concepts were readily available and that tempo concepts were slightly less so. Duration and pitch concepts were demonstrated poorly. The effect of the instructional mode was not significant in a consistent manner but varied with the ages of the subjects and the kinds of conceptual tasks given.