The effect of an interactive experience on music majors' perceptions of music for deaf students

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of an interactive exper ience on music majors' perceptions of music experiences for deaf students. Twenty-three members of a pre-existing college brass ensemble served as sub jects, and a I-hour interactive concert/presentation for 10 deaf elementary children served as the independent variable. The interactive experience wa s designed to provide social, musical, and educational interactions between the college musicians and the deaf children. A pretest-posttest design was utilized, and the dependent variable was a questionnaire designed to exami ne the subjects' perceptions regarding music for deaf students, including h ow prepared, comfortable, and willing they felt to provide music experience s for deaf students. Results reveal that this single interactive experience had a significant effect on the subjects' perceptions of the value of musi c in the education of deaf children (p < .05). Although the pretest and pos ttest scores indicate that the subjects felt apprehensive about their prepa redness to work with deaf students the subjects felt significantly more pos itive about their preparedness following the interaction (p < .001). An ana lysis of open comments indicates that the subjects perceived the experience as (a) very positive, (b) increasing their knowledge and perception of mus ic for deaf students, (c) helping them better relate to the deaf population , (d) promoting interest in similar experiences and in gaining more informa tion, and (e) eliciting a feeling that future teachers should have similar experiences. Quotes from the subjects are given, and implications for teach er training/music therapy programs are discussed.