The development and investigation of a model for introducing jazz education to secondary school ensembles

This study is aimed at producing a jazz teaching model for the short-term training of students with little or no jazz experience. By using a mainly experiential approach over a set time frame and limiting the instruction to certain elements of jazz interpretation, it aims to present a reasonable introduction to small jazz ensemble performance in the Australian secondary school sector (grade 7-12). The research grows out of more than two decades experience introducing jazz performance to secondary school students where a well-defined pedagogical problem has been identified as a result of the lack of instructional methods for teachers wishing to instruct secondary school students in small jazz ensemble performance. This tuition model aims to fulfil certain quantifiable criteria over a set period of time. The efficacy of the model is assessed by the success of attaining basic parameters and qualified by the performance outcome at the end of the model implementation period. The project has been structured to establish that the model for instruction, proposed as a solution for a research (teaching-based) problem, is successful. In 2003 eighteen Year 11 Victorian Certificate of Education music students, comprising two classes, were filmed at two-week intervals, over an eight-week period, while being instructed with the model. At the end of the eight-week period they were surveyed to gauge their theoretical and experiential development. The candidate continued to develop the model by adding extra individual instrumental techniques, a list of selected recordings, timetabling for all classes and recommendations for aural training techniques. As a comparison two more Year 11 Victorian Certificate of Education classes, comprising fourteen students, were again filmed at two-week intervals in 2006. Again they were surveyed at the end of the eight-week period to gauge both their development and their reaction to the classroom model. The results of the surveys from both years are examined along with the visual evidence of the students' performances over the eight week period of instruction that are included on DVDs with this thesis. On this evidence a case is made for the efficacy of the proposed model of instruction.