Visual diagnostic skills development and college students' acquisition of basic conducting skills

This study is an investigation of the effects of visual diagnostic skills development as a pedagogical tool in the acquisition of basic conducting techniques. Treatment and testing materials included: a conducting pretest-posttest, measuring mastery of conducting skills; a written pretest-posttest, measuring mastery of visual diagnostic skills; and two sets of instructional videotapes, serving as the treatment, one consisting of instruction and demonstration of the conducting techniques under investigation, the other consisting of an identical section, with an additional diagnostic section providing opportunities for detection of errors in the conducting techniques in question. Both groups showed significant improvement on written posttests; however, conducting posttest scores of the experimental group declined as conducting pretest scores increased. Conducting skills improved most in conductors with little prior experience. © 1996 by Music Educators National Conference.