Chapter+10

= = = **Foundations of Music Education** = = **Chapter 10** = = **Assessing Musical Behaviors** =

Music educators have difficulties developing systems to measure the outcomes of their instruction. Assessing these outcomes is very important of the teaching-learning process. One of the difficulties of accurately obtain the indicators of the level of skill and knowledge of the students is the margin of error of the measurements used. In order ti minimize the effect of measurement error is to take several ones of the same trait. This way the average of these measurements can be taken as the true level of this particular trait. Measurement instruments need to have two very important characteristics:
 * 1) Reliability
 * 2) Validity

Reliability: represents the consistency and stability of measurement instrument. Reliability can be of different types:
 * 1) Test-retest reliability: depends on its consistency over time.
 * 2) Equivalent-form reliability: depends on its consistency across different forms.
 * 3) Internal consistency: depends on the homogeneity of the items on used on the test.

Validity: This characteristic of assessment measurement observes whether a test measures what it claims to measure. Validity is dependent on reliability. If a test is not reliable it is not valid. The the three types of validity mentioned are:
 * 1) Content validity: examines the material or content that a test measures.
 * 2) Criterion-related validity: consists in comparing the scores from the test being validated with other external criteria like scores from different tests or student’s grades.
 * 3) Construct validity: compares how well the test result fit with the psychological construct.

Categories of tests:
 * 1) Achievement tests: help to measure and compare the level of achievement of the students with other school systems. Music achievement testing has not generated much interest. Colwell’s //Music Achievement Tests// (1969-70) is the most widely used.
 * 2) Aptitude tests: this category of test is used to make predictions of future achievements related by assessing innate capacities, informal environmental influences and vocational choices. Aptitude tests have a considerable acceptance among music educators and music psychologists. The most widely used aptitude measurement test is Gordon’s //Primary Measurement of Music Audiation// (1979).

For measuring cognitive out comes of instruction there are objective tests and subjective tests. Objective test may be composed of multiple choice, matching, alternative-response, and/or short-answer items. Objective tests have the advantage of //high scorer agreement ,// which reduces the error factor of the grader. An other advantage of the objective tests is that allows the measurement of a large amount of information in a short period of time. The disadvantages of the objective tests are that a good objective test takes much time to construct and they could focus in a lower level of cognitive processing. Subjective tests are often called essay tests. These have the advantage of taking a shorter time to construct and they focus in a higher level of cognitive domain. There disadvantages are that they take a long time to correct and the variability of the scores assigned to the answers. An important aspect of the assessment of musical instruction is the measurement of its affective outcomes. This measurement presents several difficulties. One of them is the amount of time needed to systematically measure affective behaviors. Another is that the instruction could not result in a evident measurable change. One of the least well developed areas of measurement is the one related to psychomotor behaviors. This is unfortunate being this the most noticeable outcomes of musical instruction. Music teachers should asses music performance systematically rather than casually. Their evaluations can be assisted the use of checklists, and rank-orienting, and/or rating scales. In evaluating the results of applied instruction, rating scales seems to be the most advantageous one. The development of student portfolios is one of the most defended modes of assessments. A collection of selected items of students’ work are made by the teacher and the students. This can be used to reflect the students’ learning processes and also as an evaluative tool. Evaluations can also be made of the music program of a school system or of an specific project. This evaluations are useful in determining whether or not a program is achieving its stated objectives. There are also other evaluation models like the “goal free”. This model is based in observing the non anticipated outcomes of the programs. In order to make the comprehensive assessment of K-12 music program, MENC and ETS have produced a series of program-evaluating instruments. The assessment of the students have been made in the areas of music performance, music notation and terminology, instrumental and vocal media, music history and culture, and attitudes towards music. This music assessments were conducted nationally. One during the 1971-72 school year and the other during the 1978-79 school year. These two assessments provided important information for music teachers and administrators about the level of the level of music understanding and the effectiveness of music instruction. An other aspect which has gained great importance since the educational reform is the evaluation of teachers. In several states tests are used to screen prospective teachers. Some studies have based their findings in On-the-job teacher assessments.