TRANSFERRING SKILLS FROM ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTS AND MATH

CLASSROOMS TO INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC CLASSROOMS

Methods

Introduction

The purpose of this research study was to examine whether or not helping

students be cognizant of skills they acquire in other classrooms would impact their

intrinsic motivation of applying those skills to problem solve in a music performance

setting. In order to do this, the researcher also investigated (a) how focusing on math

concepts impacted student understanding of performance of rhythms, (b) how focusing

on reading strategies in the music performance classroom impacted student abilities to

analyze unfamiliar pieces of music, and (c) the impact cross-curricular staff collaboration

might have on student abilities to transfer skills to the music classroom.

Participants

The research was conducted at a public middle school in a rural part of Northeast

Wisconsin. At the time of the study, the school had an enrollment of approximately 530

students. The schools student body was 68.5% Caucasian, 20.3% American Indian, 4.1%

Hispanic, .8% Asian, and .7% Black. 5.6% of the students were identified as having two

or more races/ethnicities. In this district 53.1% of the students were reported

economically disadvantaged at the time of the study, 16.4% were documented with

disabilities, and none of the students were limited English proficient. This study focused

on students enrolled in the orchestra program at the middle school. This population of this

group was made up of about 35 students and reflected the general population of all

students at the middle school (WISEdash, 2015).

Procedure

At the beginning of the 10-week quasi-experimental study, students were asked to

respond to a teacher-designed attitudinal survey (Appendix A) to look at their attitudes

toward independently figuring out new pieces of music. The researcher corresponded

with teachers in math and reading in both conferences and through email to find

strategies that those teachers used in their areas and to make sure that common language

was being used in the researchers room for those strategies. The goal was to make it as

explicit as possible to the students that these same strategies were being applied to what

was being done in the music classroom. As these strategies were being used in the music

classroom, the researcher reflected each week on how the lessons went and whether or

not the students understood what was being done through means of a journal. During

weekly student group lessons, the researcher would informally talk with students about

whether or not they thought these strategies were helping them in their playing. The

researcher also looked at student music to see if the students had used the text coding

reading strategies when they were beginning a new piece of music (Appendix B). Along

with this, students were assessed on their abilities to sight-read a new piece of music

during these lessons. The rubrics from those assessments (Appendix C) were compared to

determine whether or not students were making gains on their sight-reading abilities. At

the close of the study, the students were asked to complete another teacher-designed

attitudinal survey (Appendix D) similar to the first to see if student attitudes had changed

toward their abilities to independently figure out a new piece of music.

Research Design
 The researcher designed this study to determine if student understanding of the

relationship of other subject areas to a music performance classroom could impact their

motivation to actively figure out unfamiliar music for themselves. A variety of research

tools were used in order to try to identify any trends that might speak to the purpose

statement of the study, whether for or against. A teacher-designed attitudinal survey

(Appendix A) was administered to the participants at the beginning of the study to gain

insight into student desires to figure out new pieces of music for themselves. The

researcher corresponded with math and ELA teachers in order to gain insights and

common language on how to best teach the material and relate it from one curricular area

to another. Field notes and personal journals were used to reflect on how well the

researcher perceived the lessons and strategies to be working, or if they needed to be

revised. Work samples (Appendix B) and rubrics from student assessments on sight-

reading (Appendix C) and were also examined over the course of this study to look at

what gains the students were making. Finally, a teacher-designed attitudinal survey

(Appendix D) similar to the original was administered to the participants at the close of

the study to determine if any of the students attitudes had changed toward their desires to

figure out new pieces of music for themselves.

Data Analysis

The research analyzed and compared the opening attitudinal survey with the

closing attitudinal survey to determine whether or not any changes to students

perceptions of their own abilities had occurred. Additional data was collected by

analyzing the rubrics for the completion of the sight-reading assessments to determine

whether or not students were making gains in their abilities along with if there were
changes in their comfort levels to sight-read. How students perceived their understanding

of the cross-curricular concepts was also noted through notes on the conferences to

determine whether or not teaching the concepts was beneficial to the music classroom.

The tools used to form conclusions showed the perceptions of all students involved in the

study along with that of the researcher multiple times in order to show consistency and

acceptable validity.