UPDATE, Fall-Winter 2003, 36 A Review of Research on Instructional Approach and World Music Preference

Helping students to understand and appreciate music of the worlds cultures is an important long-term goal in music education, a position supported in documents dating from the Tanglewood Declaration (Choate, 1968) to the National Standards for Arts Education (Consortium of National Arts Education Associations, 1994). Currently the position is endorsed in the Housewright Declaration (Madsen, 2000), a summation of agreements made during the Housewright Symposium on the Future of Music Education. Although music teachers believe in the value and benefit of world music instruction, they often are uncertain as to how to provide that instruction effectively (Moore, 1993; Norman, 1994; Young, 1996). This uncertainty remains an ongoing concern. What constitutes effective world music instruction? One component involves providing music experiences that are likely to increase students preferences for the music style studied, as this is a desired long-term outcome for music instruction. Reimer (1965) indicated that teaching methods, among other considerations, should be examined to determine how and to what extent the teaching-learning process affects learners in terms of achievement and levels of music preference. LeBlanc (1982) theorized that music preference decisions are based upon th