Educational researchers have examined the effect of achievement goals on student performance, and suggest that both mastery goals and performance-approach goals are beneficial, whereas performance-avoidance goals are harmful. Recent research proposes that these results may not be generalized in the domain of music. The purpose of the present study…

Few national studies have been conducted on students' receipt of arts instruction, particularly in the early grades. To address this gap in the literature, this Issue Brief provides a descriptive look at the prevalence of arts instruction received by first and third grade public school students in their schools. Using spring 2000 and spring 2002…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 26 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) military theatre; (2) drama as pedagogy; (3) visualization and actor training; (4) the discomfort-relief quotient as an indicator of theatrical genre; (5)…

The experiences of several hundred arts projects across the country are distilled and illustrated in a report that communicates the variety and importance of the arts activities and how their use of found space has helped to stabilize and upgrade many communities. A mix of building types, a variety of arts activity, and broad geographic…

Describes the history and current state of special courses to prepare librarians for work with performing art collections. Results from a survey of library educators and theater librarians indicating mixed feelings about such courses are discussed, and the survey questions are appended. References are provided. (BK)

Surveys four-year college and university theater departments on the status of child drama programs in the U.S., including child drama academic programs and children's theater productions. Includes specific responses of schools offering degrees or emphases in child drama. (SR)

Describes a case study of a high school theater teacher who left teaching as a result of teacher burnout. Defines burnout, describes the teacher's brief career along with factors that she found stressful, and discusses implication for educational practice. (SR)

This paper seeks out the gaps between localised accounts of drama's efficacy in terms of producing transformations in students' behaviours and sense of identities and the theoretical accounts of such transformations offered in the textual discourses of the field of Drama in Education. Drawing on a range of post-colonial and emancipatory discourses…

In England the government's specialist schools initiative is transforming the nature of secondary education. A three-year longitudinal case study tracked the effects of specialist performing arts college status on two schools. The sites were a mainstream school drawing pupils from an area of high social deprivation and disadvantage, and a special…

Examines problems that both professional and university youth theatre programs share, namely, concerns about finances, personnel, facilities, artistic quality, and public relations. Discusses how all of these problems may, in reality, be financial problems. (JD)

Reports on a survey of each state's certification requirements for theater arts and drama teachers. Includes changes since the last survey in 1973; efforts to group dance, art, music, and theater together; and the supervision of theater arts teachers. (JMF)

Offers a case study of an African American college student's involvement in theater. Describes her experiences in high school and university theater programs and the meanings she made of those experiences to reveal her concept of ethnicity. (SR)

Investigates whether the same patterns of sexism and gender-typing found in popular and award-winning children's literature exist in 10 award-winning plays for young people. Finds relatively few instances of nine overtly sexist traits in the plays. (SR)

The authors facilitated a Theatre for Development training workshop for Save the Children UK with a number of children in three villages in northern Bangladesh in 2000. In 2005 they revisited the young people, unofficially and informally, to assess for themselves if there had been any impact of the TfD on their lives. They asked what the young…

This paper is directed at performing arts managers interested in developing marketing techniques in order to expand the audiences for their performances. The paper outlines a model of the process by which an individual progresses from lack of interest in the performing arts to active participation and interest. The model that describes this…