The Effect of High Versus Low Teacher Affect and Passive Versus Active Student Activity During Music Listening on Preschool Children's Attention, Piece Preference, Time Spent Listening, and Piece Recognition

This study was designed to examine the effects of high versus low non-verbal teacher affect and active versus passive student activities during music listening on preschool children's attention, paired-comparison piece preference, time spent listening, and piece recognition. Three-through five-year-old subjects ( N = 94) participated in four small-group listening lessons and subsequent individual posttests. Through the use of a modified multiple baseline design, each of four treatment conditions, representing different sequences of instructional events, was replicated three times. All lessons were videotaped on a split screen showing both teacher and students. Data obtained through observation of the videotaped lessons indicated that high teacher affect was associated with higher levels of group attending behavior than was low affect, and active listening activities elicited similar or higher on-task behavior than passive activities. No significant effects concerning teacher affect during listening or piece familiarity were found in analyses of posttest piece preferences, time spent listening, or piece recognition, although some differences between older and younger children were evident.