Explores the musical backgrounds and beliefs of nonmusicians and the relationship of these variables to music appreciation. Finds that students with past emotional responses to classical music said that the music contained emotional content, guessed the emotional response that most closely matched the composer's intent, and listened to the music…

Discusses a collaboratively designed project where a group of artist-teachers created an installation quilt for a group exhibition that spurred their reflection on aesthetic issues and feminist pedagogy. Explains that these ideas are connected and may offer teachers interested in gender issues a view toward a listener-centered pedagogy and…

Offers a strategy from the book "Strategies for Teaching Prekindergarten Music" to help young children meet the achievement levels called for in Music Educators National Conference (MENC) Prekindergarten Music Education Standards. Explains that in the lesson provided children will become familiar with music as a medium for changing…

Assistant principals are jacks-of-all-trades who must be ready for anything. Successful vice-principals build positive relationships, know their role, are good listeners, discover where to get help, maintain their composure, respect parents' feelings, commit to excellence, and learn how to handle stress. (MLH)

Defines what is meant by a learner-centered approach, provides a rationale for infusing learner-centered classroom assessment techniques in classroom assessment, and suggests a framework and specific activities for incorporating learner-centered classroom assessment techniques in English-as-a-Second- or Foreign-language instruction. (Author/VWL)

A study investigated whether examinees taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) attended to the text passages in the "minitalks" when answering the multiple-choice items (n=337) testing listening comprehension. Results support the construct validity of the minitalks, and also allow comparison between reading and listening…

Describes how a team of English instructors has made slight changes in setting up and delivering academic listening practice to stimulate interactive content lectures. This sustained-content language teaching program covers content sufficiently specific to students' other studies and ensures that discipline-relevant learning can take place inside…

Focuses on the use of creative movement within the choral rehearsal. Discusses various techniques that can be used to integrate movement into the classroom, such as students mirroring the teacher's gestures, demonstrating phrase shape, unison tapping and clapping, and moving for dynamic contrast. (CMK)

In this study, younger and older adults heard either just word onsets, word onsets followed by white noise indicating word duration, or word onsets followed by signals indicating word prosody. Older adults required longer stimulus durations for word recognition with hearing sensitivity a significant factor. Word recognition was facilitated equally…

Anxiety plays an important role in foreign language (FL) students' classroom performance. This study presents the results of the first empirical examination of the effect of general FL learning anxiety on students' achievement in an Arabic course and of listening anxiety on students' listening comprehension. The data came from 2 measures of…

Common perceptual characteristics of the elderly voice include hoarseness, breathiness, instability, and a change in the pitch of the voice. Although research is available concerning changes in the elderly voice, little research has been completed to examine the relationship between the perception of voice quality and acoustic measures. The…

The impact of the radio in the 1930s can be compared to the force of change in people's lives today caused by current technology. Marguerite V. Hood (1903-92), a recognized leader in the music education profession during the 1930s, understood the importance of music education radio broadcasts for rural one-room schools and music education classes.…

This article focuses on a number of research projects produced by members of the Center for the Study of Education and the Musical Experience (CSEME). Written over a fifteen year span, the studies were linked by a common topic--music listening. Each study explores a distinctive aspect of music listening, and together, they have generated a more…

Homework problems among students with learning disabilities can be attributed to two primary causes: (a) students' characteristics (e.g., poor motivation, problems in listening comprehension, lack of organizational skills), and (b) teachers' deficits in making assignments (e.g., assigning work that is too difficult or time-consuming, failing to…

Three studies (N = 171) examined preschool children's tendency to use category information to make inferences about ambiguous behavior. Children heard stories in which category information about story characters was manipulated and behavioral information was held constant. Participants were asked to evaluate, explain, and determine the…