Date of Award

Summer 8-2009

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership and School Counseling

Committee Chair

Rose McNeese

Committee Chair Department

Educational Leadership and School Counseling

Abstract

This study was designed to examine educators' perceptions and practices of instruction through music. Using primarily quantitative methods for collection and analysis of data, correlations were sought among the primary variables: elementary teachers' perceptions of the value of instruction through music, their self-reported frequency of instruction through music, and their self-evaluated level of musical intelligence. The hypothesis for this study was that a positive correlation existed between any two of the three variables.

Participants included elementary teachers representing instructional grades one through five from four elementary schools in the southeastern part of the United States. To collect data, a survey was administered to teachers. Using scores from the instrument, bivariate analyses using Pearson's product moment correlation were used to determine if a correlation existed between any two of the primary variables.

Upon analyses of the data, results indicated that positive correlations existed between each of the pairs of variables. Other findings included, but were not limited to, the following: how elementary teachers used music as part of instruction, teachers' selfefficacy, and teachers' multiple intelligences.

The study contributes to the limited research on how teachers' multiple intelligences and their perceptions of those intelligences impact their teaching practice. Furthermore, this research substantiated previous research which indicated that instruction is affected, even determined, by teachers' personal and pedagogical theories or beliefs. These instructional beliefs are characterized, at least in part, by the educator's Multiple Intelligences and self-efficacy. In this study, teachers' beliefs of their intelligences were positively related to the frequency and perceived value of instruction.

Recommendations for further study are indicated.

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