This week has included a lot of reading! I was instructed to create a questionnaire about a music education topic. The questionnaire could be given to adults because we don't have access to students in a classroom over the summer. I wracked my brain for a subject and went through many of them before settling on the subjects of stage fright. I have a lot of friends and family who have dealt with stage fright in various forms over the years. After settling on the topic of stage fright and possible cures for stage fright, I read Chapter 7: How to Construct a Questionnaire from the text, "Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods Fourth Edition" by Burke Johnson and Larry Christensen.
Johnson and Christensen define a questionnaire as "a self-report data-collection instrument that each research participant fills out as part of a research study" (162). A questionnaire is like a survey in that it allows the participant to answer questions about a certain topic. There are two different types of questions that might appear in a questionnaire: open-ended questions and closed-ended questions. An open-ended question is a question that allows the participant to answer freely, like a short answer question. A closed-ended question provides a set number of answers and the participant must choose one answer.
Johnson and Christensen state 15 principles of Questionnaire Construction:
1) Make sure the questionnaire items match your research objectives.
2) Understand your research participants.
3) Use natural and familiar language.
4) Write items that are clear, precise, and relatively short.
5) Do not use "leading" or "loaded" questions. (A loaded question is "one that contains emotionally charged words" while a leading question is "one that is phrased in such a way that it suggests a certain answer" (166-167)).
6) Avoid double-barreled questions. (A double-barreled questions "combines 2 or more issues or attitude objects in a single item" (168)).
7) Avoid double negatives.
8) Determine whether an open-ended question or a closed-ended question is needed.
9) Use mutually exclusive and exhaustive response categories for closed-ended questions.
10) Consider the different types of response categories available for closed-ended questionnaire items.
11) Use multiple items to measure abstract constructs.
12) Consider using multiple methods when measuring abstract constructs.
13) Use caution if you reverse the wording in some of the items to prevent response sets in multi-item scales.
14) Develop a questionnaire that is properly organized and easy for the participant to use.
15) Always pilot test your questionnaire.
With these 15 principles in mind, I created the following questionnaire about stage fright:
Stage Fright
Hello and thank you for taking the time to
fill out this questionnaire. Everyone
deals with stage fright at some point in their life. Whether it’s the feeling of slight anxiety
before you step onto the stage or the experience of chest pain, most people
have experienced one of the symptoms once in their life. Please take a few minutes to fill out the
following questions to reflect upon your experiences with stage fright. Remember, there is no right answer!
1. Do
you have stage fright when you sing, dance, or perform an instrument in front
of others? (Circle one)
Yes Sometimes Never
2. Do
you have stage fright when you speak in front of other people? (Circle one)
Yes Sometimes Never
3. Do you avoid, if at all possible, the chance
to perform or speak in front of others? (Circle one)
Yes Sometimes Never
4. Do you
feel uncontrollable anxiety when you perform or speak in front of others?
(Circle one)
Yes Sometimes Never
5. Do
you feel like you will lose control when you perform or speak in front of
others? (Circle one)
Yes Sometimes Never
6. On a
scale of 1 to 7; 1 being the least and 7 being the highest, please rate the
level of anxiety you feel when you perform or speak in front of others.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
7. Do you experience any physical symptoms when
you perform or speak in front of others?
If so, please circle all that apply:
Dizziness
Sweating of
hands/palms
Shaking
Chest pain
Pounding of heart
Numbness
Other (please
explain): ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8. Which of the following ways to cope with
stage fright works best for you (circle one)?
Listening to music
before you perform or speak in front of others.
Stretching before you
perform or speak in front of others
Meditating before you
perform or speak in front of others
Exercise before you
perform or speak in front of others
Laugh before you
perform or speak in front of others
Imagine the audience
in their underwear as you perform or speak in front of others
Visualize success
before you perform or speak in front of others
Visualize the words
and/or notes in your head while you perform or speak in front of others
Pick a point on the
far wall to stare at as you perform or speak in front of others
Pick 3 people in the
audience to stare at as you perform or speak in front of others
Other (Please
explain):
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
9. Gender (circle
one):
Male Female Prefer
not to Answer
10. Race (circle
one):
American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Black
or African-American
Hispanic or Latino White Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
Prefer not to Answer
11.
Age:
0-9
10-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70-79
80-89
90-100
Hopefully this survey allows me to gain some insight on the topic of stage fright and the possible cures. This will allow me to work with my students who are afraid of performing in front of others in order to create a safe environment.
In addition to the questionnaire this week, I was charged with creating a review of literature on the topic of my research study proposal: Sight Singing in an Elementary Music Program. I really wanted to research this topic because there are so many methods to teaching sight singing. It would be interesting to see if there was a method that stood out from all the rest.
I spent a great deal of time researching articles for this project. I found that James L. Reifinger Jr. is a pioneer in this field and has done a number of studies on this subject. He worked multiple times with second grade students because he determined that was the grade where most programs began their notation instruction. He worked with the students multiple times. In 2009, he worked with the students in determining whether or not patterns that were taken from songs the students had previously knew could be practiced using solfege and that would allow the students a chance to succeed when sight singing. They took a prettest, posttest, and retention test. In the tests, the items 1-15 were patterns practiced over a 16 week period and items 16-25 were unfamiliar to the students. He found that the students did better on the familiar patterns. This evidence shows that students should practice solfege in the classroom constantly. The more they practice a certain solfege pattern, the better the student is able to sight sing that pattern! In addition, in 2012 he did a similar study in second grade. This time he wondered whether or not solfege was the best tool for students when sight singing or if singing on a neutral syllable such as "loo" would give them a greater chance for success. In addition, he kept the familiar and unfamiliar patterns in order to further research is previous topic. He split the students into 4 groups : solfege/familiar, solfege/unfamiliar, loo/familiar, and loo/unfamiliar. He found that using solfege with familiar patterns once again yielded the best results. But he also found that using solfege for unfamiliar patterns could sometimes be difficult because it was too much to concentrate on at the same time. Because of that, using loo with unfamiliar patterns also had its benenfits!
