Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.

Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.

An examination of Nebraska high school band directors' implementation of and attitudes toward the National Standards in Music

J. Samuel Zitek, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if the curricula used by Nebraska high school band directors aligns with the National Standards of Music, to determine the directors' attitudes toward the Standards, and to examine the effects of directors' background on their attitudes toward the National Standards of Music. These attitudes and frequencies were determined utilizing the Survey of Band Directors' Attitudes Toward the National Standards (SBTNS) developed by the researcher. The SBTNS was administered to all Nebraska high school band directors (N = 295) as listed in the 2007-2008 Nebraska State Bandmasters Association Directory and the 2007-2008 Nebraska Music Educators Association Directory via SurveyMonkey and was completed by 146 (49%) directors. Reliability of the SBTNS (&agr; = .782) was found to be in the upper thresholds of acceptability. The results of this study clearly indicated that the curricular activities observed and practiced by all respondents center around the actual playing of music, while the lowest response rates reflected the creation of new music, either through composition or improvisation, as well as relating music to various disciplines. The subjects also indicated a generally positive attitude ( M = 3.32 on a 1.00 to 5.00 scale) toward the National Music Standards. Multiple regression with backward elimination was used to examine the relationship between selected demographic factors of the directors (age; gender; years of teaching experience; level of education; and school size) and their attitude scores. Only gender was found to be a significant predictor of attitude toward the National Standards. Further, there was a positive correlation between the overall attitude score and the frequency of the use of all curricular activities presented in the survey, significant at the .01 level of confidence. Correlation relationships ranged from +.219 to +.716, indicating a positive relationship between all the variables, with an overall attitude/frequency correlation (r = +.256), which was also significant at the .01 level of confidence.

Subject Area

Music|Music education

Recommended Citation

Zitek, J. Samuel, "An examination of Nebraska high school band directors' implementation of and attitudes toward the National Standards in Music" (2008). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3331177.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3331177

Share

COinS