This dissertation consists of three projects that I designed to examine high school band directors' and collegiate musicians' experiences and perceptions of democratic educational processes within concert band rehearsals. The first investigation is a review of literature about democratic educational principles and their application in non-music…

This study's purposes were to develop a rating scale for midlevel band performance and validate a theoretical structure for the scale. Research questions were (a) What qualities describe excellent seventh- and eighth-grade band performance? (b) What items constitute a Midlevel Band Performance Rating Scale (MBPRS)? (c) How reliable is the MBPRS?…

The purpose of this study was to examine creative thinking and learning in arts-infused education by using the invention kit "Makey Makey" as a platform for Human-Centred Design Instrument (HCDI). Data were collected from 249 adolescents (n = 249) from a Hong Kong secondary school in a participatory design format. They were selected for…

The purpose of this study was to compare the concert band assessments of male-directed ensembles and female-directed ensembles in the state of Virginia. Data included overall ratings of male-directed and female-directed bands (N = 3,229) that performed at District Concert Assessments held across the state in the past 6 years (2013-2018), which…

This action research discovers the learning preferences of middle school students enrolled in an advanced steel drum class in central Florida, specifically their attitudes toward the learner-centered approach while composing and learning music. Sixteen participants compare the traditional teacher-led formal instruction to student-led informal…

In this exploratory study, we describe the learning experiences of adolescents from a social project called "Orquestrando Talentos," which offered violin and viola lessons in two high-needs schools for low-income students in Erechim, Southern Brazil. Grounded on the central tenets of popular education, on Paulo Freire's work, and on…

This is the sixth and culminating study in a series whose purpose has been to acquire a conceptual understanding of school band performance and to develop an assessment based on this understanding. With the present study, we cross-validated and applied a rating scale for school band performance. In the cross-validation phase, college students…

This research aims to determine distance education experiences of Turkish instrument educators' related to instrument training during the COVID-19 pandemic. As with other practice lessons in education, instrument training also collides with its own unique problems during pandemic. Therefore, it is thought that the experiences of Turkish instrument…

With particular reference to Beijing, China, this study adopts mixed-method research to focus on Grades Seven to Nine students' perceptions of how parental cultural capital and support influence their musical instrument learning. Framed by Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, two research questions are addressed in this article: (1) How do…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the perceptions of secondary-school band teachers as they moved to virtual formats with their students. The study was designed to fill a gap in the literature, as little research has been done on the subject of distance learning and music. As teachers reflect on their pandemic-closed schools,…

Although flow theory is one way of measuring the quality of a student's experience in a music ensemble, the majority of flow research utilizes samples of high school or collegiate level musicians thus causing us to generalize findings to young adolescent (middle school) populations. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, the purpose of…

The aim of this study is to determine, as expressed in metaphors, the attitudes of the students of music department in the Fine Arts High School (FAHS) in the 2019-2020 academic year. The study was carried out with 37 music students in 9th and 12th grades of Mersin Adiyaman Fine Arts High School. In line with the phenomenological research design,…

The purpose of this literature review was to gather and examine current research related to the recruitment of precollegiate students into traditional music teacher education programs in the United States. Research has shown that precollegiate students who pursue music education as a career are influenced by their secondary ensemble directors.…

The purpose of this case study was to examine the perspectives of three Black instrumental music students related to their experiences attending a predominantly white summer music camp for high school students in the United States. Analysed through a conceptual model of culturally responsive teaching in music, data sources included semi-structured…

Recent advances in music technology include practical tools for sound recording and production in school music classrooms. Secondary school music production classes allow students to make meaningful connections between school music and the music in their own lives. We offer several projects for teaching music production and sound recording;…