Motivation and Discipline in
Music Education
• DEFINING
EVALUATION IN MUSIC
 Good
teaching that includes evaluation is
illustrated by the private music lesson.
 The teacher continually evaluation evaluates
the student’s performance, making
suggestions, changes, and assignments
based on his appraisal of the student’s
progress.
Defining evaluation in Music
Cont.
•The objectives of the private lesson may
seldom be stated or carefully thought
out, but they are made clear to the
student by the teacher’s concern for
specific strengths and weaknesses of
pupil’s performance.
Defining evaluation in Music
Cont.
•At the end of each lesson and, indeed,
within the lesson, teacher and student
know what the student can do well and
what needs attention.
Defining evaluation in Music
Cont.
• In
the classroom, evaluation is facilitated by
a precise definition of the objectives, stated
in behavioral terms when possible. Good
teaching can happen without stated
objectives, but it is just that-a happening.
Without objectives that can be verbalized,
good music programs and the bands and
orchestras come and go with the director.
PRINCIPLES FOR
EVALUATION
 In
one sense, all teaching can be
looked upon as an experiment, a
continual process of improving learning
through more effective materials and
instruction.
oSimple trial and error is neither good
teaching nor good experimentation
Principles for Evaluation
Cont.

Evaluation is dependent upon objectives,
and, similarly, objectives cannot function
without evaluation.
oObjectives
are still often considered by
themselves. They serve little purpose when
stated in such general terms that progress
toward them cannot be evaluate
oA
common objective in music circles is
“awareness”, but it is like the pot at the end of
the rainbow, vague and unattainable.
Principles for Evaluation
Cont.

Goals for the band or orchestra must
primarily be those taught and reasonably
attainable.

Evaluation cannot begin after the learning
process has started. It must be part of the
curriculum planning, taking place at every
stage.
Principles for Evaluation Cont.

It has become educationally fashionable to compare
students, schools, teachers, buildings, states, and
even nations with respect to school achievement,
and it is incumbent upon all teachers to have data
indicating that students are learning what they
should know and be able to do.
o The public seems to except football shows, exciting
concerts, and contest wins as evidence of a solid music
program.
o Most teachers and thoughtful school board members will
require additional evidence if music teachers claimed to be
teaching musical understanding, appreciation, ability to
read music, and knowledge about music, in addition to
those skills needed for a successful performance.
Principles for Evaluation
Cont.

Some schools have adopted a “gain score”
or “value-added” approach to evaluation.
The objective is to pre-evaluate all students
and judge adequacy of the program on the
year’s gain. Gain depends on one’s initial
ability and achievement level. Students
could show marked gain and remain below
acceptable standards, or show little gain and
the among the nation’s finest.
EVALUATING MUSIC AS
AN ART
The learning related to the
understanding music as an art
includes factual knowledge;
discernment; understanding of
style, orchestration, and structure;
and perceptual listening skills.
Evaluating Music as an Art Cont.

Factual Knowledge – the more the students know about
the way music is put together, the people who put it
together, the way “putting together” differs in various
historical periods and countries, and the reasons for
those differences, the greater will be his musical
understanding.

Musical Discernment – discernment is more than
recognition of tunes or moods. It indicates the ability to
follow the music as it unfolds, to distinguish great music
from good music, to recognize the style of the
composition, to understand the composer’s message as
reflected in the structure and style of the work, and to
evaluate accurately the quality of the performance.
Evaluating Music as an Art Cont.

Recognition of Style and Structure – this is part of
both factual knowledge and discernment. It is
important to know the style and form of music to be
able to listen to a variety of music. By understanding
this, one can appreciate a larger variety of music.

Auditory Skills – listening skills are a necessary part
of music participation. The relationship between
seeing and hearing music is close; to mentally hear
what is seen in the score and to visualize what is
being heard are usually the marks of the skillful
listener.
EVALUATING MUSICAL SKILLS
In the majority of public schools, music
was for many years thought of
primarily as a skill and usually in
narrow sense of performance skill.
Other skills must also be developed if
performance is to lead to a lifelong
interest in music. Chiefly, the other
skills fall into two categories: reading
skills and auditory-visual skills.
EVALUATING MUSICAL SKILLS Cont.
•
Performance skills – any number of vehicles
exist for evaluating performance skill. The
most familiar of these are private lessons,
section rehearsals, daily rehearsals, tryouts or
challenges, concerts, contests, and festivals –
in short, any type of student performance.
o Teachers should use a list of specific objectives in order to
avoid a subjective judgment
Production
of good tone throughout the pitch range and the
dynamic range
The ability to change tone quality to suit the music
Accurate intonation
A pitch range sufficiently wide for the level of music played
Dynamic range from pianissimo to fortissimo
An accurate and rapid use of fingers
EVALUATING MUSICAL SKILLS Cont.

Reading Skills – reading skills are the key to
pleasure in musical participation. When the player
can understand the musical page by himself
without direction from the teacher, he can learn
new music on his own, play in ensembles, enrich
the family music circle, and in general enjoy a
musical freedom.
o A good sight reading test will follow somewhat similar
lines of construction as the Watkins-Farnum test.
Insight
reading the students should see more than the notes
Evaluation should include awareness of the key signatures, all
accidentals, dynamic markings, accents, phrase and tonguing
(bowing) markings, and recognition of the phrase so that proper
articulation is observed
EVALUATING MUSICAL SKILLS Cont.

Auditory-Visual Skills – this skill depends
basically on the ear and its relationship to the eye:
the ability to visualize what is being heard and to
hear inwardly what is seen on the musical page.
o Differing from sight reading in that an instrumentalist
may successfully sight read by allowing the notation to
indicate what fingers to put down rather than hearing
inwardly what she reads-she may have to play a melody
before she knows how it sounds.
EVALUATING MUSICAL SKILLS Cont.

Auditory-Visual Skills cont.
o Auditory visual skill is what the singer uses, for he must
hear the music inwardly before he can sing it accurately.
o Objectives for auditory visual skill:
Visualize
simple melodies heard
Inwardly hear simple melodies seen in the score
Ability to recognize the tonal center, modulations, commonly
used chords, and unexpected harmonies
Ability to remember melodies adequately for following simple
formal structure
Ability to follow parts other than the principal melody
Ability to recognize timbre and texture
OBSERVATION
Teachers who don’t observe miss a
most valuable evaluation tool. Aural
and visual observation are critical with
ensembles, in which each member’s
input affects the results. Most
instructional objectives can best be
assessed by listening and observing.
Observation Cont.

Important objectives that can be evaluated by
observation are:
o Posture – from head to toe
o Bowings
o Finger position
o Embouchure
o Percussion playing position
o Rehearsal decorum and procedures
o Behavior
o Fingerings and slide positions
o Attitude
o Cooperation
o Responsibility
Observation Cont.
 Important
objectives Cont…
oPencil availability
oTime on task
oConcentration (attentiveness)
oCare of instrument
oUniform or concert attire
oAbsence of instrument from school locker
oBreathing
oPunctuality
oReadiness
LISTENING
Related to observation in his
assessment through listening –
undoubtedly the most important
assessment tool for improving the
quality of the ensemble and the
learning of its members.
Listening Cont.
1. The most accurate listening assessment is
when one student performs at a time.
Assessment for blend, balance, matching
pitch, maintaining one’s own part, and so
forth must be done in a group situation,
but ideally it should take place in small
groups.
Listening Cont.
2. It is difficult to make sensible judgments
about beginners who have little
embouchure control. Timbral differences
are easily mistaken for pitch and
intonation problems; ear training of
musicians seldom extends to sounds of
crows, donkeys, and beginning oboists.
Listening Cont.
3. Again, listen for specifics to improve
listening reliability – listen for tone quality,
attacks and releases, centered tones,
clarity of production, as well as the correct
notes and correct (approximate) rhythms.
Listening Cont.
4. Hearing incorrect notes, rhythms or even
harmonics in a large ensemble of
beginners is not easy and cannot be
expected of most beginning teachers.
a. Sectional rehearsals provide the instructor
with an opportunity to evaluate individual
performers
b. When sectionals are student led, the teacher
has a better opportunity to observe and judge.
Listening Cont.

Contemporary notebooks encourage
assessment and included achievement
charts that can be prominently posted.
o These method books at the size skills on an
instrument, requiring visual and aural
observations as an assessment technique
Listening Cont.

Students should improvise, understand
more than the music performed, improve
their musical memories, discover how
music is put together, and discriminate
among the good and less good in music
and performance.
PORTFOLIOS
Much contemporary literature indicates
that a portfolio is an assessment
device. It is not. A portfolio is part of
a students locker, a place to store
important and trivial items of interest
and a value.
Portfolio Cont.


A major advantage of the portfolio occurs when
students reflect on the substance of their
accomplishments.
A disadvantage to the portfolio is that delayed
feedback lacks the power and importance of
immediate feedback.
o
The portfolio may include homework assignments,
extended research projects, awards, trophies,
newspaper articles, content sheets, practice cards,
letters of appreciation for community service, CDs,
mementos of trips, athletic event souvenirs, and any
other document that shows their participation and
competence in music and music ensembles.
Portfolio Cont.

Closely related to the portfolio is the
student log. The log is a record maintained
by the student of his musical experiences
and his reactions to them.
o The log should include both formal and
informal encounters with music

Concert attendance, recorded performances heard,
musical participation in organize groups i.e. church
or club ensembles, and on organize happenings 90
campfire singing, combos, family music making
Rubricks
A rubrics book for the ensemble should be
considered, one that describes as clearly as
language can portray the established local
standards of excellence, proficient, basic, and
unsatisfactory. Students should assist in building
this book – using their own terms that are
sufficiently explicit that agreement among the
students is possible. Descriptors need to be
formulated for levels of pitch in rhythmic accuracy,
tone, aural perception, air identification, and even
musical understanding. The rubric accompanied by
aural recording that provides a clear example is
optimum.
Rubricks Cont.
1.
2.
Measures of musical aptitude have value. The
effectiveness of teaching can be best measured
in terms of a student’s potential.
Measures of music achievement, both
standardized and teacher constructed, should be
used. Achievement tests will reflect not only
aptitude but also motivation, hard work, parental
support, interest, good teaching, and a host of
other known and unknown factors that
contribute to success in instrumental music.
Rubricks Cont.
3.
4.
5.
Audio and video tape recorders, including interactive
video, are evaluative tools. Used with rehearsals and
classes as well as with concerts, recordings provide an
opportunity for the teacher to examine and leisure at the
strengths and weaknesses of any performance.
Students can judge themselves and judge each other.
Often, students set higher standards for themselves than
those set by the instructor.
Computers can judge performances in pitch and read
them to whatever degree of precision is desired. The
computer is patient, and there’s no opportunity for
personal embarrassment when the machine judges and
provides the feedback.
Rubricks Cont.
6.
7.
The music contest or festival can furnish
an ideal evaluation situation. To do so,
however, both teacher and pupil must use
it as an opportunity to learn rather than a
glorification of a cause.
The private lesson is a fine vehicle for
evaluation. The private teacher’s opinion
should be solicited and compared with
other data on the student’s progress.
Rubricks Cont.
8.
9.
Interviews with students can reveal special
strengths, interests, background, and
environment, as well as prejudices,
weaknesses, and dislikes.
The critical-incidents test is a successful
tool for measuring a student’s perception
in musical situations. The test consists of
having the student describes the best and
worst moments of yesterday’s concert or
show.
Rubricks Cont.
10. Attitude scales are used in many areas of
education to discover how students feel
about something. The attitude scale is
usually a list of statements, each reflecting
a slightly different point of view, to which
the individual responds with a “strongly
agree,” “agree,” “no opinion,” “disagree,”
“strongly disagree,” or a similar set of
choices.
Rubricks Cont.
11. Preference scales are easier than attitude scales
to construct and are of value but are seldom
instructional and objective. In this scale the
student ranks in order of preference such items
and school classes, recreational activities,
musical compositions, recording artist, tone
quality, and others.
12. Practice cards on which the student records the
amount of daily practice on her instrument to be
useful. In well-run ensembles, students are
surprisingly honest.
Rubricks Cont.
13. Student demonstrations, whether spontaneous or
planned, afford opportunities to evaluate skill and
understanding. Spontaneous demonstrations are occur
when correct performance of some musical passage or
pattern is requested of individuals or sections by the
director or section leader. Planned demonstrations of
technique, tone, or timbre, performed in public or
rehearsal, are an effective device for motivation and
learning.
14. Point systems are effective in motivation and evaluations.
Cover as many aspects of the student’s development as
possible.
Rubricks Cont.
15. Checklists ensure greater objectivity and
coverage of the factors of musical performance.
16. Teacher-constructed tests are most successful
when used to measure knowledge. Specific
items that have been taught and emphasized in
class or rehearsal are appropriate material for
paper-and-pencil tests.
17. Collecting data on student achievement must
always be made with reference to objectives.
Evaluation of Instrumental
Objectives
Music involves participation and
participation fosters attitudes and
habits. Good habits, attitudes, and
values have always resulted from
engaging in music, and these have
their appropriate place in
assessment.
Eval. of Inst. Obj. Cont.

Participation
1. Is the student dependable and punctual?
2. Does the student participate wholeheartedly
in rehearsal activities? Reading books, doing
assignments, and gossiping during rehearsal
are negative indications of participation?
3. Does the student use in their music skills in
leisure activities?
Eval. of Inst. Obj. Cont.

Participation Cont…
4. Do they participate in civic and or church music
organizations?
5. Do they take full advantage of school music
offerings?
6. Do the students attend concerts?
7. Do the good habits of group participation carry over
into their everyday life?
8. Participation can be evaluated by student logs,
checklists, interviews, critical incidents measures,
practice cards, and point systems.
Eval. of Inst. Obj. Cont.

Attitude
1. Does the student participate fully and willingly? Do
they act in a democratic and cooperative spirit?
2. Where does music rank in the students preference
for school subjects? In their preference for
recreational activities?
3. What selections and kinds of music does the
student for?
4. Attitude can be appraised using the questions under
participation and by sophisticated attitude scales.
Eval. of Inst. Obj. Cont.

Habits
1. Does the student have a regular daily practice
routine?
2. Does the student consistently warm up or warm
down properly?
3. Does the student routinely take care of their
instrument?
4. Is concert attendance and record buying habitual
within their means?
5. Good habits do not spring automatically from a
good music program. Like transfer of training,
habits must be specifically taught by insistence on
schedule and routine.