Vocal Assessment and Self-Concept

Iwent on a journey a few years ago with a group of choral students that has forever changed my perspective on teaching the nuances of the human voice. My very first teaching assignment was a K-12 role; we were small, and we were mighty. During my assignment, I noticed a significant disconnect between thriving student performance and low self-confidence. Students were eager and hardworking but lacked a positive self-concept and struggled to believe their vocal abilities and personalities were contributing factors to our success as a choir. This disconnect spoke to why our students' natural giftings coupled with their work ethics were not achieving superior ratings at group and individual festivals. As a choral educator this reality deeply concerned me and at the time, I was pursuing my master’s degree and learning how action research could help solve problems of practice in education.

The NDHSAA publishes a vocal adjudicator form every year that so many of us are familiar with; we have lived them, breathed them, reviewed them, and sought ways to help our students improve their performances. While looking for patterns in past and present vocal results and ratings, my students consistently had lower scores in vocal tone production and intonation. They also consistently struggled to maintain good vocal techniques in their day-to-day rehearsal practices, which was contributing to their lower vocal scores in tone production and intonation. In discussing these patterns with my students, they could honestly give accurate definitions of intonation and tone but could not articulate practical methods to improve these areas.

With the help of action research guidance, I designed a study to examine how rigorous use of vocal assessments in the choral classroom could potentially lend itself to a further developed vocal self-concept and an improved performance in students, while giving music programs relevance.

The research I conducted was with eight freshmen, four sophomores, five juniors, and three seniors. Four research questions were the guiding focus of the study which included: (a) Does the assessment of vocal technique further develop vocal self-concept and improve student performance? (b) Does the assessment of intonation further develop vocal self-concept and improve student performance? (c) Does an assessment of tone further develop vocal self-concept and improve student performance? (d) Can the use of targeted vocal assessments improve music

program relevance? Data was collected in many ways and consisted of a pre and post questionnaire that reflected self-concept themes, a voice placement rubric that students used to map out their own progress, assessments in vocal technique, intonation and tone, and journal prompts. The most fascinating part of the data collection, for me personally, was learning that students had a more positive outlook on the specific skill of vocal technique, intonation, and tone and were pleased with the direction they were moving to improve their skills when they could see their progress. Students also marked higher point values to questions such as, “I matter to our choir because of my singing ability,” and “I matter to our choir because of who I am a person” after experiencing assessments of progress. Overall, the study revealed students indeed improved their vocal self-concept when vocal assessments were used to measure their growth and progress. It also revealed that teachers can be more confident in taking rehearsal time to implement vocal assessment practices to help their singers grow vocally and personally, while giving their music programs more relevance among the academic community.

Paige Bondley Mandan Middle School NDACDA Middle School/Junior High Co-Chair