The Effect of Repeated Listening Experiences on Upper Elementary Students' Tolerance Toward Non-Western Music

vi, 107 leaves. Advisor: James CoxThis study examined the effect of repeated listening experiences on upper elementary students' tolerance toward non-western music. Intact music classes were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. During the pretest, students indicated their degree of liking for nonwestern musical excerpts. Following the pretest, experimental subjects (n=303) received twenty-two repeated listening experiences of the same non-western examples employed on the pretest. Control subjects (n=279) received regular music in struction. Following the treatment, all subjects were administered a posttest. An analysis of covariance determined significant gain differences between groups. Overall, results indicate highly signficant (p=.05) gain differences between groups toward all styles of non-western music. Analysis by grade indicates that fourth- and fifth- grade experimental subjects significantly improved, while sixth- grade students realized positive, but insignificant gains. Analysis by genre indicates that all experimental subjects significantly increased tolerance toward African and East Indian styles, but obtained insignificant gains toward Japanese music