The Effect of Sequential Patterns on Rehearsal Evaluations of High School and Elementary Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of sequential patterns on evaluations by high school and elementary students of teaching in rehearsal. Subjects (N − 536) evaluated a high school choral music director conducting a scripted rehearsal containing 10 sequential patterns of instruction identified in previous research. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four presentations of the taped rehearsal: (1) audio and video; (2) audio only; (3) video only; or (4) script only. Results demonstrated that students rated presentations of script only and audio-video higher; presentations of audio or video only produced lower evaluations, as well as comments indicating frustration in deciding evaluation scores. In addition, patterns beginning with musical information were graded higher than those beginning with directions, those ending in approvals were graded higher than those ending in disapprovals, and those ending in specific reinforcement were graded higher than those ending in nonspecific reinforcement.