Abstract: Qualitative research can contribute significantly to both applied, and to basic research, opening intellectual avenues that have not been explored in the past. In this paper, I present a unified vi...

Abstract: An information processing model based on the neuropsychology of Alexander Luria was employed to investigate individual differences among normal and musically gifted children in their perception of ...

Abstract: In this paper two connected sets of relationships are examined; between research and music education practice and between theory and data. It is argued that the strength and coherence of theorising...

Abstract: Verbal protocol analysis or think alouds have emerged as a useful research methodology for studying a wide variety of human problem-solving skills. Think aloud methodology has only recently been ap...

Abstract: This ethnographic study of music education in the domain of Bulgarian traditional music examines the relationship between music, music education, and culture and makes some hypotheses about cognitive processes in music learning in aural tradition. It demonstrates how music education was embedded in larger cultural processes in the pre-communist and communist (1944-1989) periods and documents the continuities and discontinuities between traditional and modern methods of learning and teaching. Participant-observation of traditional methods provides the basis for hypotheses about the order in which musical concepts are acquired when they are learned but not taught.

Abstract: This study was one effort to identify some of the articles published in the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), that have had the greatest impact on the field, have withstood the test of time in importance to the profession, and/or have added significantly to the body of knowledge about the effects of music and music teaching. This was done by surveying authors, who had published two or more articles in JRME, regarding their perspectives of the more than 925 articles published in its over 40-year history. Participants listed up to five JRME articles authored by others they considered to be the most important. Tables included provide lists of the most published authors, most mentioned articles and their complete bibliography, and authors of the most mentioned articles. everal research methods have been used to gain insights into where the field of music education research is and has been. These studies of trends and history have taken several forms: sociological study (Abeles & Carroll, 1981), content analysis (Kratus, 1992; Schmidt & Zdzinski, 1993; Yarbrough, 1984), study of authorship and citation rates (Hedden, 1992; Schmidt & Zdzinski, 1993; Standley, 1984), and historical narrative (Warren, 1984). In an effort to objectively quantify prolific and influential scholars, and institutions with the most productive faculties in music education and music therapy research, Standley (1984) analysed contents of the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (CRME), and Journal of Music Therapy fJMT), from their inceptions through 1982. She examined a total of 1162 research articles, with 534 from JRME, 288 from CRME, and 340 from JM’I’. These publications represented 775 authors in JRME, 361 in CRME, and 353 in JMT. Of the 15 most productive authors, 13 had two or more articles in JRME. The authors were: C. K. Madsen with six articles; L. G. Dorow and J. D. Boyle with five; J. P. Gilbert, E. Gordon, S. K. Hedden, and E. P. Asmus with four; R. Colwell, J. M. Geringer, A. LeBlanc, and C. L. Spohn with three; and R. D. Greer and D. E. Michel with two articles. Some of these individuals also tended to be cited most often in all three journals, with the distinguished additions of E.T. Gaston, M. Pflederer Zimmerman, J. Mursell, P. R. Farnsworth, K. Hevner-Mueller, and C. E. Seashore. It should be noted that Standley’s study of citations did include self-citations. Yarbrough (1984) undertook a comprehensive examination of the 658 articles published in JRME, from its first issue published in 1953 through 1983. The study included analyses of methodologies, subjects and topics. She reported a decline in percentage of articles based on dissertations, and that 20 authors had contributed from three to a

Abstract: Recent advances in structural equation modeling (SEM) are enabling researchers to study the effects of latent variables on constructs used and developed in the behavioural sciences This study examined the construct validity of The Primary Measures of Music Audiation with a kindergarten sample of 191 children A 3- factor model of music aptitude was tested using the EQS/Windows program The results of the SEM analysis suggest that three factors, general, orienting, and structuring, underlie the ability to audiate short tonal music patterns Sample goodness-of-fit indices showed an excellent fit (GFI = 973, AGFI =926) Comparative fit indices were not as high (BBNFI = 855, BBNNFI = 840, CFI =926) Gordon's (1987) theory of developmental music aptitude suggests that music aptitude fluctuates until around age 9, when it stabilises The initial step in testing this hypothesis lends support for the 3- factor model and suggests that model fit will improve as children mature

Abstract: While university ethics committees codify ethical standards for 'research with human subjects', qualitative researchers grapple with shifting and elusive problems which remain beyond the ambit of effective legislation. In this article I examine some of these problems in the light of my own experience in conducting a participant observation study of soldier-musicians in an Australian army band. While there is a considerable literature on the ethical conundrums met in fieldwork, there is less about the problems of writing about other people. Yet, in their writing, qualitative researchers have a considerable responsibility for what they say about their subjects. Hence, representing others in qualitative research is my focus. I conclude that just as in human social life, where rules for ethical behaviour reside in the conscience of individuals, so too ethical problems in qualitative research can be addressed only in the context of our personal moral codes.

Abstract: It seems to be the destiny of Music Education that it be tied in junior relationship with other subjects - Music of course, and more recently, Anthropology. Understood as Education in Music, the subject is assumed to concern itself with how music is taught and learned. The author suggests that Music Education should also be understood, in questions of research, as Education about Music, thus allowing it to make a more direct contribution to the Humanities, and in particular, to cultural studies. By way of a case-study, the article outlines the ways in which Education about Music influenced a generation of writers in 19th-century France, and spread itself 'secretly' into their literary work.

Abstract: Researchers in the history of music education have provided few accounts of methodological procedures. The neatness of these accounts makes such work seem unproblematic. This paper reflects on the ...