The effects of a discovery approach to movement instruction on children's responses to musical stimuli

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a discovery approach to movement instruction on the musicality and level of movement responses of young children. A secondary purpose was to explore these effects as they related to gender and aural perception ability. Additionally, this study sought to determine which musical styles or prominent elemental changes elicited the strongest musicality and level of movement responses. Further, qualitative differences in movement were described by judges who examined the movements of children who scored high and low in musicality. Subjects for this pretest-posttest equivalent-groups design study were 61 children (K-1) from 12 public and private schools in southwest Arizona. The three dependent variables in this study were musicality scores, level of movement response scores, and movement pattern descriptions. The three independent variables were movement instruction (the discovery approach to movement instruction), gender, and musical aptitude (PMMA tonal and rhythmic scores). The experimental group received the treatment over a 3-week period in daily 45-minute classes. The control group received music training without the discovery movement component. In a three-way ANOVA performed on gain scores for musicality, gender was shown to be a significant main effect. That is, girls showed more musicality development than boys. The type of instruction and musical aptitude were found to be nonsignificant factors. A ranking of musicality and level of movement posttest means for all children showed there were differences among means across excerpts with greatest responses to music in a popular style (hip-hop) or Classical style (Mozart), music with prominent elemental changes in dynamics and timbre, and fast tempos. According to judges, there are notable qualitative differences in movement patterns between children scoring high and low in musicality. Children low in musicality lack concentration, are nonreflective of the music, and have limited body vocabularies. Children high in musicality appear to be focused and independent, responsive to the musical elements, and rhythmical. These children use a variety of whole body movements toward the development of an expressive and reflective personal style.