The purpose of this study was to examine music educators’ understanding and opinions of U.S. copyright law. In-service music educators ( N = 50) completed a web-based questionnaire designed to assess their attitudes toward, knowledge of, and preparation/training for understanding copyright law. Respondents reported generally favorable attitudes toward copyright law. Results also indicated that respondents had a limited understanding of certain aspects of copyright law. These in-service music teachers reported that their undergraduate preparation did not prepare them well to understand copyright law, and the majority (64%) indicated completing zero undergraduate courses that included copyright law as a content area and few professional development sessions focused on understanding copyright law. Analysis of respondents’ answers to a free-response question indicated the following themes: (a) rationalizing unethical/illegal behaviors, (b) criticizing the status quo, and (c) expressing a desire for more information about copyright.

The author investigated the effects of a cooperative learning environment on the implementation of integrating music into core academic subjects. Using a quasi-experimental design, participants ( N = 59) were preservice generalist elementary and special education majors from four course sections of a required music methods course, where two course sections worked in a cooperative learning environment and two course sections worked individually. For six weeks, participants worked on a final project that integrated music into academic core subject lessons. At the conclusion of six weeks, each participant individually microtaught one lesson created from the music integration project. Additionally, participants completed an interest survey after the study was concluded. Results showed that participants in the cooperative learning group scored statistically significantly higher ( p < .05) on the music integration project, microteaching evaluations, and rated statistically significantly higher interest on their projects from the student interest survey. These results suggest that participants in the cooperative learning group produced work of a higher quality than participants in the control group and that the cooperative learning group also showed a higher level of interest in their own music integration projects.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of behavioral contracting on preservice elementary teachers’ performance achievement on the soprano recorder. Participants were elementary and special education majors (N = 60) enrolled in an undergraduate elementary music methods course. The study used a withdrawal design (ABA) composed of 2-week baseline–contract–baseline phases. Participants performed an assigned excerpt on the soprano recorder at the conclusion of each phase, and the tempo and number of errors performed were scored as data points for each participant. Results showed that participants performed with significantly higher tempos and significantly fewer errors during the contracting phase. Following the contracting phase, participants’ performed tempo continued to increase even in the absence of the behavioral contract. These results are consistent with previous research suggesting that behavioral contracting does have a positive impact on students’ performance skills