University of Dayton

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• University of Dayton
• Dayton, Ohio
• The School of Education and Allied Professions
• EDT-667
• Educational Research Seminar

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A Case Study of the Effects of Publicity on a
Communitys Understanding and Perception of Music
in the Public School Curriculum
Daryn Radenheimer April 2006
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INTRODUCTION

• Does the Power of Music really exist?
• Confidence and success in life
• Academic success in school
• Social/emotional well-being

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INTRODUCTION

• The research literature suggests that YES
• Cross-disciplinary benefits are achievable
• Music is an essential ingredient in the academic
  success of todays students

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INTRODUCTION
Benefit No. 1

• SPACIAL TEMPORAL REASONING
• visualizing steps that lead to an outcome
• The minds eye is enhanced
• through music instruction

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INTRODUCTION
Benefit No. 1 Research Supporting spatial
temporal enhancement
I. Bilhartz, Bruhn, and Olson (2000)
pre-school children who got musical training
improved notably more that those who did not on
the Bead Memory Test (a visual memory test in
which one must recall and reassemble sequences of
beads of different colors and shapes) II.
Eugenia Costa-Giami (1999) fourth-graders
with three years of private piano instruction
scored much higher on the Developing Cognitive
Abilities Test than those in a control group
receiving no piano training
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INTRODUCTION
Benefit No. 1 Research Supporting spacial
temporal enhancement cont.
III. Hetland (2000) by stimulating or
priming ones neurons with 10-15 minutes of
Mozarts Piano Sonata for Two Pianos in D major,
it is surmised that a cognitive transfer (one
kind of learning supporting performance on
another kind of task) occurs between music and
spatial abilities IV. Vaughn (2000)
students who demonstrated higher mathematical
achievement as a consequence of music classes V.
Rutzlaff (2000) there is a strong and
reliable association between the study of music
and performance on standardized reading/verbal
tests especially between verbal SAT scores and
participation in one or more high school music
performance classes
effect
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INTRODUCTION
Benefit No. 2

• SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL PROCEEDS

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INTRODUCTION
Benefit No. 2 Research Supporting social and
emotional enhancements
I. Kennedy (1998) Students once considered
at risk for being arrested, were given guitar
training with repeated opportunities to perform.
The end result was improved self-efficacy
(concept of self-capacity) and self-esteem II.
Kariuki Honeycutt (1998) listening to music
helped emotionally disturbed special-needs
children focus more when completing writing
assignments III. Power of music (2001) in
the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign,
youths ages 9 to 17 proclaimed that listening to
music was the main reason why they dont do drugs
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INTRODUCTION
Benefit No. 2 Research Supporting social and
emotional enhancements cont.
If this evidence exists, then, why are policy and
budget makers decreasing or eliminating funding
for school music programs? Are they not seeing
the extra-musical benefits of music curriculum?
NO Federal policy-makers and school
administrators have been unsupportive of music
considering it not a core ingredient of public
education and not a valid budgetary
concern ? only one of every four students in the
United States today is actually involved in
singing or playing an instrument ?10 of schools
nationwide are offering no music program to
students Principal requirement to publicize
opportunity to impact my communitys current
perception and value of music in the
curriculum THE RESEARCH QUESTION With the goal
of educating the public about the
cross-disciplinary benefits of music, what would
be the impact of publications in the local paper?
What would be the extent of the impact on
students, parents, and community members?
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METHODOLOGY

• PARTICIPANTS SETTING
• The impact of publicity on
• A. 44 music students
• B. 17 middle school students
• 9 local community members

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METHODOLOGY

• OTHER PARTICIPANTS
• Gold Star Chili (Corporate sponsor)
• free cheese coney for completing and returning
  the survey
• E. Local newspapers The Journal Press and The
  Register
• series of special interest columns and stories
  titled, The Power of Music

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METHODOLOGY

• DATA COLLECTION
• SURVEY prior to publicity SURVEY
  after publicity
• (pre-publicity survey)
  (post-publicity survey)

• adequately measures perception and value of
  school music programs
• clear and unambiguous- no music jargon
• lacking bias
• proposed possible statements regarding music
  education

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METHODOLOGY

• DATA COLLECTION cont.
• First 5 Statements -? Topics in the special
  interest articles
• UNDERSTANDING the benefits of music education
• 1. success in school
• 2. success in society
• 3. economic development
• 4. intellectual development
• Second 5 Statements -? VALUING music education
• 1. grade school
• 2. middle school
• 3. high school
• 4. throughout America

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METHODOLOGY

• DATA COLLECTION cont.
• Publicity Blitz..
• 4 news articles in 13 days!
• ? Thursday, March 9th- the impact music has on
  success in schools
• ? Tuesday, March 14th- the impact music has on
  economic development
• (by assistant news editor, Denise
  Freitag)
• ? Thursday, March 16th- addressing musics impact
  on intelligence
• ? Thursday, March 23rd- how music has influenced
  success
• (by assistant news editor, Denise
  Freitag)

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METHODOLOGY

• DATA COLLECTION cont.
• STUDENTS were exposed to the content of the music
  advocacy articles through mini-lectures

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METHODOLOGY

• DATA ANALYSIS
• Pre-Survey compared to Post-Survey responses
• a change in perception due to content of the
  articles?
• Online Survey
• www.radenheimer.com/survey/display.php
• 1. Numbers and percentages
• 2. Hard copies entered by hand
• How many total parents responded?
• What percentage of the total community did
  they represent?
• What percentage responded unsure to
  Statement 3?

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DATA ANALYSIS

• DATA ANALYSIS
• publicity positive impact higher mean
  scores compared to pre-survey responses
• Anticipated 0.50 positive net-difference for each
  of the post-survey statements

Standard Deviation ? consistency and range of
responses ? level of agreement embedded in each
mean ? significant concurrence with or
divergence from survey statement
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DATA ANALYSIS

• DATA ANALYSIS
• Likert scale numbers exported to
  Excel
• What is the quantifiable extent of publicitys
  impact?

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FINDINGS
UNEXPECTED RESULTS Table 1 Students
44 Students Post scores are consistently higher
for questions 1-4, and 6-9 Slight positive change
for Statement 5 No change for Statement 10
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FINDINGS
UNEXPECTED RESULTS Table 2 Parents
17 Parents Increases in the strongly agree
post-responses are less evident Change is lacking
in the strongly disagree post scores - Statements
5 and 10
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FINDINGS
UNEXPECTED RESULTS Table 3 Community Members
9 Community Members Agreement with Statement 5
(no clear benefits) Increased agreement
with Statement 10 (reducing/eliminating
music) Statement 9 strongly agree diminished
(every student in America)
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FINDINGS
UNEXPECTED RESULTS Table 4
When Mean and Standard Deviation scores for all
three groups are seen together Student group
was the most impacted by the publicity Parents
and community scores remained unchanged or only
slightly improved Lower mean scores after
publicity for statement 5 (RED scores in Table
4)
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FINDINGS
Students have widest range of responses Parents
and community members have most concurrence with
Statements 6 and 7 The Total Community (pre
and post mean scores of all three groups
combined) comprehensive extent of publicitys
impact NO STATEMENT saw the POSITIVE
NET-DIFFERENCE as predicted
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FINDINGS
Table 5
Statements 4 and 10 indicate very little change
in perception Statement 5 seems to have been
negatively affected by the publicity
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FINDINGS
The following graphs illustrate the difference
between the total communitys mean scored on
the pre and post survey
Overall extent of change in perception that
occurred before and after publicity First 5
survey statements total communitys
understanding of benefits
Last 5 survey statements how much community
values music in the curriculum
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

• extent of the impact was limited to less than a
  0.50 net-difference in all cases
• 2. greatest positive impact regarding Statement
  1 with a net-difference of 0.44
• 3. counter-effect regarding Statement 5 with a
  net-difference of -0.05
• 4. greatest impact of publicity
  occurred within student group

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INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS

• Why did the greatest change in perception occur
  within the student group?
• Oral versus written presentation of the content
• Did not have the choice
• Voice likely provided a message that was more
  heartfelt than written prose

• Why were levels of change so LOW in the parent
  and community groups?
• Short term publicity / articles overlooked
• Did not make a compelling enough case
• Relevance of music and balancing a school budget
  are inherently different issues
• Confused by the negative context of Statements 5
  and 10

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SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
Can I educate my community through publicity so
they may better understand and value the benefits
of music education? POSSIBLE, yet nevertheless,
DIFFICULT to accomplish in the SHORT TERM The
BEST form of PUBLICITY seems to be that which is
communicated IN PERSON
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CONCLUSIONS AND ANTICIPATED ACTION
Skepticism still remains much more publicity in
the future Faculty meeting in May emphasize
importance of consistent, long-term
message change of perception is possible
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CONCLUSIONS AND ANTICIPATED ACTION
THE POWER OF MUSIC Continued authoring of the
special interest column The Power of
Music Will run on the last Thursday of each
month Next year in May, original adult
participants once again asked to take survey to
What will be the extent of the impact of
long-term publicity?
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CONCLUSIONS AND ANTICIPATED ACTION
THE POWER OF THE PERSONAL TOUCH getting the
word out about music education. PUBLIC
RELATIONS! Direct community musical Fall fest
entertainment committee Contact with school board
members, local radio announcers and mayor A
source for understanding and valuing the power
of music
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CONCLUSIONS AND ANTICIPATED ACTION
I CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! French Author, Anatol
France, remind us all To accomplish great
things, we must not only act, but also dream, not
only plan, but also believe