What's new in pedagogy research?(Professional Resources)

Think back to all the high school and college jazz bands you have seen. What about the professional jazz bands? Thinking about their musicians, I would imagine that they were mostly men! The American Association of University Women reported in a study published in the year 2000 that although girls' participation in male-dominated areas such as math and science was improving, they remained a minority in the field of jazz. There has always been a gender gap in jazz ensembles, and even with the development of public education music courses and ensembles, and college-level instruction and degrees, women remain consistently underrepresented in this genre.

This phenomenon was investigated in a recent study by Erin Wehr-Flowers titled "Differences Between Male and Female Students' Confidence, Anxiety, and Attitude toward Learning Jazz Improvisation." (1)

In order to compare the attitudes of males and females toward improvisation, the researcher adapted the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales to measure attitudes toward improvisation rather than mathematics. This survey consisted of Likert-type scale responses to 11 confidence statements such as "Generally I have felt secure about attempting jazz improvisation"; 12 anxiety statements such as "Jazz improvisation doesn't scare me at all"; and 12 attitude statements such as "I'd be proud to be the outstanding student in jazz improvisation." Each statement was answered on a 1 to 5 scale of Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. The survey was given to participants in middle school, high school, college and community-based jazz groups, and completed by 83 males and 54 females.

The results were disappointingly consistent--the mean score response to every statement in the survey was lower for the females than the males.

* The confidence variable was designed to measure the respondent's attitude towards his or her perceived ability to learn how to improvise and perform well, and showed that the females were less willing to even attempt jazz improvisation than the males.

* The anxiety variable was designed to measure their feelings of dread, nervousness and physical anxiety symptoms experienced when attempting jazz improvisation. The scores indicated that anxiety might be more debilitating for the females.

* The attitude variable was designed to measure the consequences of success in ,jazz improvisation, including anticipating negative consequences from success. Scores indicated that males might anticipate more positive consequences from success in jazz improvisation. It is interesting to note that there were generally lower attitude scores for older adults. (2)