Oleta A. Benn

Bio: Oleta A. Benn is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topic(s): Teacher education. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 4 publication(s) receiving 6 citation(s).

The Place of Music in a Technological World

Abstract: You may have heard of the advice given the Reverend Smith. Young bachelor that he was, newly out of seminary, eager to be effective in his first pastorate, he found himself completely tongue-tied as a pretty young Sunday School teacher urged him to say a few words to her class of wriggling six-year-olds. As he ended his stammering excuses with the pleading question, \"But what can I say ?\" a solemn and sympathetic little girl rose and answered: \"Pleathe, Mithter Thmith, why don't thuh jutht thay 'Amen' and thit down ?\" It occurs to me that we could consider such advice in the two quite different sentences which follow, the first one being: It would be a very simple and easily rationalized action in today's climate of demands for scientific education and increased emphasis upon the so-called \"solid\" subjects, for musicians simply to bow their heads, fold their hands, say \"Amen,\" and sit down engulfed by their defeatism and suffering from their lack of faith in their own art. The second sentence: If we believe that music is one of the values of our world, if we know why we believe this and if we do not choose to throw away fifty years of professional growth, then this is most certainly not the time for musicians to say \"Amen\" and sit down!

… And How They are Applied: 3. College:

Abstract: The third problem concerns creativity. Bruner's phrase "effective surprise" represents the focus of immediate interest. The phrase refers to an original idea or product that works. Both originality and workability are properties of concepts and of the things people make or do because of their concepts. We can make original things if we see things differently from others. If in our concept formation processes we have amassed familiarity with large quantities of environmental objects and events so that they are at our easy disposition and if we are relatively free of imposed ways of looking at them, we can organize them according to our own fancies. We can make things that work if our store of percepts is accurate, and if we have acquired the necessary technical competencies for putting our original ideas into workable physical form. The most useful things to do to cultivate creativity through teaching are to help students become conceptually acquainted with their musical environment without imposing any set of stereotypes on them and to help them acquire the technical skills they will need when they start to express their ideas. Although little has yet been said directly about specific instructional practices for the development of musical concepts, most of what would constitute effective instruc-

Introduction to Advanced Study in Music Education: By Neal E. Glenn and Edgar M. Turrentine. Dubuque, Iowa: William C. Brown, 1968. 133 pp., Bibliography, Index. Hard cover, $3.75

Abstract: scholarly pursuit. These materials reflect the particular interests of their authors and are used or not used according to the pattern of graduate study set up by the student and his advisor or his individual teachers. The possible scope of graduate study, its identification of needs in the teaching-learning situation, and the techniques by which such needs can be investigated usually become known through a more or less cumulative process as the student progresses in his work. Much of his satisfaction with

Remain or React: The Music Education Profession's Responses to Sputnik and A Nation at Risk

Abstract: The 1957 launch of Sputnik and the 1983 publication of A Nation at Risk shifted national education policy. Music educators promoted an “intrinsic value” of music philosophy following Sputnik and music advocacy through politics and public performances following A Nation at Risk. Examining the history of both the intrinsic value philosophy and advocacy reveals that music educators responded to Sputnik and A Nation at Risk by continuing to work within their existing language and practices rather than reacting to and transforming after either event. The political, social, and cultural contexts of these events may explain music educators’ responses.

Stereocontrolled synthesis of steroid side chain; stereoselective syntheses of cholesterol and 25-hydroxycholesterol

Abstract: Novel stereoselective method to introduce side chain onto 17-oxosteroids has been deviced, and using the method cholesterol and 25-hydroxycholesterol are synthesized.

The Percussion Band - Mere Noise or Music?

Abstract: The Percussion Band method is part of our methodological heritage. The method was carefully based on contemporary educational theory and its advocates argued convincingly for its inclusion in kindergarten and school curricula. Critics of the method were heard from the first. This article seeks to examine the arguments for and against the method, the educational beliefs that underlie these positions and to note the influence of the method in the Australian school curriculum.

A Bibliography of Research on the Evaluation of Music Teacher Education Programs.

Abstract: s under either \"Music\" or \"Education\" classifications.1 Only those books, bulletins, and periodical articles are listed (without annotation) that appear the most likely to be useful. Preference was often given to the more recent publications when choices were made. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DISSERTATIONS CURRICULUM PROBLEMS IN MUSIC EDUCATION Bennett, Elmer Leslie. \"A Program for Vocal Majors in a Teacher Training Institution.\" Columbia University, 1966, Dissertation Abstracts, Vol. 27 (March 1967), 2908-A. As a result of his study, Bennett concludes that in the training of vocal majors in music education \"the emphasis should be upon broad musical development rather than specialized performance skill.\" There should be more concentration on the development of general musical understanding and less on attaining vocal technique in the individual student's early musical studies. For practice and drill activities to be meaningful, they should be as musical as possible and relevant to the compositions being studied. Also, \"the responsibility for teacher preparation in music rests with all the activities of the music curriculum of a teacher training institution.\" Lee, Cecil Loran. \"Developing Patterns of the Undergraduate Music Education Curriculum in the United States.\" Brigham Young University, 1966, Dissertation Abstracts, Vol. 27 (July 1966), 222-A-223-A. Lee mailed questionnaires to twenty-four teacher-training institutions selected by MENC and NASM for having made significant changes in their undergraduate music education curriculums during the ten-year period 1955-1965. As a result of his investigation he recommends that \"there should be: (1) greater stress placed upon correlation of related areas of learning; (2) correlation of the activities of performing groups and related areas such as music history and literature classes; (3) student performing experiences in both large and small choral and instrumental ensembles; (4) integration of instrumental and choral literature and certain aspects of theory such as sight-singing. Written for the MENC Commission on Teacher Education.

An investigation of personality and value characteristics of successful high school band directors in North Carolina

Abstract: The purposes of this study were: (1) to investigate the personality and value characteristics of successful high school band directors in North Carolina, and (2) to determine whether successful high school band directors differ from a random sampling of high school band directors in tests of personality, cultural values, and administrative practices. Collection of data was by use of three testing instruments: the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, the Study of Values, and a questionnaire designed to gather information relating to administrative practices of respondents. Two groups participated in the study. Group I contained successful high school band directors chosen by a jury of selectors. Selection of Group II members was at random from a list of North Carolina high school band directors published by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The degree of success of Group II members was unknown.