A Survey of the Music Integration Practices of North Dakota Elementary Classroom Teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the nature of North Dakota elementary classroom teachers’ (NDECT) music integration in the general classroom. The majority of NDECTs integrated music with: the subjects of Language Arts (62.01%), Mathematics (55.00%), and Physical Education (50.89%); the settings of Group Work Time (64.29%), Morning Carpet Time/Welcome Time (58.54%), Free Time (58.13%), and Individual Work Time (55.43%); and Math Skills (62.01%) and Everyday Skills (53.99%). Listening to Music (89.13%) and Singing Songs (72.83%) were the most frequently reported musical activities. Significant differences were found between music integration into core subjects (i.e., mathematics, language arts, science, social studies/history) and other variables (i.e., gender, grade level taught, music training, collaboration with the music teacher). The subjects provided reasons (e.g., not knowing where to include it into an already-full day) as to why they included music only rarely in their classrooms.