Music learning theory

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The field of music education contains a number of learning theories that specify how students learn music based on behavioral and cognitive psychology. [1]

Contents

Classical Learning Theory

While formal music education has roots going at least as far back as the Hebrews in Egypt [2] or the ancient Greeks, [3] challenges arose as music became more specialized and technically complex after the 5th century BCE in Ancient Greece and as the development of notation shifted music education from training in singing to training in music reading. [4] Educators and theorists such as Odo of Cluny and Guido d'Arezzo in the 10th and 11th centuries explored methods to teach these new developing notational practices. [4] Academic interest in music education lessened by the Renaissance as universities abandoned music as a part of their curriculum in the mid 16th century, [5] while the Protestant Reformation later brought some changes to music education, Martin Luther among other individuals suggesting that music, poetry, and history be added to standard education curriculum. [6] In the 17th century, John Amos Comenius recommended music education for religious purposes and designed a methodology to do so, as Richard Mulcaster encouraged universal education including singing and playing as standard curriculum. [7] By the 19th century the conservatory model became more common outside of Italy alongside a number of choir schools which provided education as well as practical music experience. [8]

20th century

Mainstream pedagogy and examination of how students learn theory rose to prominence in the 20th century by theorists and educators beginning with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Zoltán Kodály, and Carl Orff, and followed by Shinichi Suzuki, Edwin Gordon, and Valeri Brainin among others. Later research into educational learning theories in the 1960s places emphasis on behavioral, cognitive, and constructivist thinking. [9] The Tanglewood Symposium of 1967 and the Music Educators National Conference Goals and Objective Project in 1969 were other early examples of the growing movement of applying modern developments in sequencing curriculum. [9] [10]

Behavioral learning theories and music education

Behaviorism examines relationships between the environment and the individual with roots in early 20th century work in the German experimental school. [11] Theories by researchers such as Ivan Pavlov (who introduced classical conditioning), and B.F. Skinner (operant conditioning) looked at how environmental stimulation could impact learning, theorists building on these concepts to make applications to music learning. The research of Clifford Madsen, Robert Duke, Harry Price, and Cornelia Yarbrough build on the operant conditioning model focusing on guiding "good" or "successful" teaching by analyzing the role of appropriate reinforcement such as praise and feedback on musical discrimination, attitude, and performance. [12] Later studies also examined music itself as a mechanism of reinforcement, such as research by Greer (1981) and Madsen (1981). [12]

Cognitive learning theories and music education

Cognitive theories of learning, often viewed as the antithesis of behavioral theories, [13] attempt to map how individual learning processes relate to already-familiar knowledge. [13] Gestalt psychology serves as the foundation for many applications to music learning theory.

Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff (1983) theorized on musical grammar based on Chomsky's linguistic theories, arguing that "acoustic information triggers mental operations that impose order onto input. If there is sufficient exposure to music, musical understanding will occur through enculturation rather than formal training." [14]

Other cognitive learning theories are also based on research in early childhood education, motor learning, hemispheric dominance, and information theory. [15]

Constructivist learning theories and music education

Constructivist theories of learning, largely developed by Jean Piaget, [16] accept the relation between the individual and the environment as crucial for understanding the process of learning in a more holistic perspective than cognitive and behavioral models. [15] Kurt Lewin, also considered the 'father' of social psychology, used Gestalt theory to develop his field theory of learning, a model that emphasizes "context familiarity as an important descriptor of how individuals learn and process information." [17]

Modern constructivist applications to music education include research by Roger A. Rideout, Stephen P. Paul, Geraint Wiggins and others. [18]

Sound Before Sight

Contemporary music pedagogies emphasize sound before sight, or the idea that in order to develop an understanding of music and music notation, individuals must first become comfortable with listening to, singing, and performing tonal and rhythm patterns before reading and writing music. [19] [20] [21] Modern studies by Luce (1965), McPherson (1993, 1995, 2005), and Bernhard (2004) all suggest a significant positive correlation with playing by ear and the ability to sight read, [22] and experimental research by Haston (2004) and Musco (2006) also suggest that spending classroom time playing by ear does not negatively impact students' abilities to develop music reading skills. [23]

Related Research Articles

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.

Learning theory (education)

Learning theory describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a world view, is acquired or changed and knowledge and skills retained.

Musicology is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some music research is scientific in focus. Some geographers and anthropoloigsts have an interest in musicology so the social sciences also have an academic interest. A scholar who participates in musical research is a musicologist.

Instructional design (ID), also known as instructional systems design (ISD) or recently as learning experience design (LXD), is the practice of systematically designing, developing and delivering instructional products and experiences, both digital and physical, in a consistent and reliable fashion toward an efficient, effective, appealing, engaging and inspiring acquisition of knowledge. The process consists broadly of determining the state and needs of the learner, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating some "intervention" to assist in the transition. The outcome of this instruction may be directly observable and scientifically measured or completely hidden and assumed. There are many instructional design models but many are based on the ADDIE model with the five phases: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology".

Jerome Bruner American psychologist and scholar

Jerome Seymour Bruner was an American psychologist who made significant contributions to human cognitive psychology and cognitive learning theory in educational psychology. Bruner was a senior research fellow at the New York University School of Law. He received a B.A. in 1937 from Duke University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1941. He taught and did research at Harvard University, the University of Oxford, and New York University. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Bruner as the 28th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Constructivism (philosophy of education) Philosophical viewpoint about the nature of knowledge; theory of knowledge

Constructivism is a theory in education that recognizes the learners' understanding and knowledge based on their own experiences prior to entering school. It is associated with various philosophical positions, particularly in epistemology as well as ontology, politics, and ethics. The origin of the theory is also linked to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

Learning sciences (LS) is an interdisciplinary field that works to further scientific, humanistic and critical theoretical understanding of learning as well as to engage in the design and implementation of learning innovations, and the improvement of instructional methodologies. Research in the learning sciences traditionally focuses on cognitive-psychological, social-psychological, cultural-psychological and critical theoretical foundations of human learning, as well as on the design of learning environments. Major contributing fields include cognitive science, computer science, educational psychology, anthropology, and applied linguistics. Over the past decade, researchers have also expanded their focus to the design of curricula, informal learning environments, instructional methods, and policy innovations.

A hidden curriculum is a side effect of schooling, "[lessons] which are learned but not openly intended" such as the transmission of norms, values, and beliefs conveyed in the classroom and the social environment.

Music education

Music education is a field of practice, in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. As well, music education is a research area in which scholars do original research on ways of teaching and learning music. Music education scholars publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals, and teach undergraduate and graduate education students at university education or music schools, who are training to become music teachers.

Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of both psychology and musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is perceived, created, responded to, and incorporated into everyday life. Modern music psychology is primarily empirical; its knowledge tends to advance on the basis of interpretations of data collected by systematic observation of and interaction with human participants. Music psychology is a field of research with practical relevance for many areas, including music performance, composition, education, criticism, and therapy, as well as investigations of human attitude, skill, performance, intelligence, creativity, and social behavior.

Joe Lyons Kincheloe was a professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education, McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founder of The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy. He wrote more than 45 books, numerous book chapters, and hundreds of journal articles on issues including critical pedagogy, educational research, urban studies, cognition, curriculum, and cultural studies. Kincheloe received three graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee. The father of four children, he worked closely for the last 19 years of his life with his partner, Shirley R. Steinberg.

In psychology, constructivism refers to many schools of thought that, though extraordinarily different in their techniques, are all connected by a common critique of previous standard approaches, and by shared assumptions about the active constructive nature of human knowledge. In particular, the critique is aimed at the "associationist" postulate of empiricism, "by which the mind is conceived as a passive system that gathers its contents from its environment and, through the act of knowing, produces a copy of the order of reality".

Clifford Mayes

A Jungian scholar, Mayes has produced the first book-length studies in English on the pedagogical applications of Jungian and post-Jungian psychology, which is based on the work of Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961). Jungian psychology is also called analytical psychology. Mayes' work, situated in the humanities and depth psychology, is thought to offer an alternative to the social sciences model.

Constructivism has been considered as a dominant paradigm, or research programme, in the field of science education. The term constructivism is widely used in many fields, and not always with quite the same intention. This entry offers an account of how constructivism is most commonly understood in science education.

David G. Hebert is a musicologist and comparative educationist, employed as Professor of Music at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, where he leads the Grieg Academy Music Education (GAME) research group. He has contributed to the fields of music education, ethnomusicology, sociomusicology, comparative education, and East Asian Studies. From 2018, he is manager of the Nordic Network for Music Education, a multinational state-funded organization that sponsors intensive Master courses and exchange of university music lecturers and students across Northern Europe. He is also a Visiting Professor in Sweden with the Malmo Academy of Music at Lund University, and an Honorary Professor with the Education University of Hong Kong. He has previously been sponsored by East Asian governments as a Visiting Research Scholar with Nichibunken in Kyoto, Japan, and the Central Conservatory of Music, in Beijing, China.

Vittorio Filippo Guidano was an Italian neuropsychiatrist, creator of the cognitive procedural systemic model and contributor to post-rationalist constructivist cognitive psychotherapy. His cognitive post-rationalist model was influenced by attachment theory, evolutionary epistemology, complex systems theory, and the prevalence of abstract mental processes proposed by Friedrich Hayek. Guidano conceived the personal system as a self-organized entity, in constant development.

Chet Bowers American writer

C. A. (Chet) Bowers was an American educator, author, lecturer and environmental activist. He wrote 27 books that focus on the cultural, linguistic, and technological roots of the current ecological crisis as well as the educational reforms necessary to promote greater ecological awareness.

Gordon music learning theory is a model for music education based on Edwin Gordon's research on musical aptitude and achievement in the greater field of music learning theory. The theory is an explanation of music learning, based on audiation and students' individual musical differences. The theory uses the concepts of discrimination and inference learning to explain tonal, rhythmic, and harmonic patterns.

Kenneth Tobin

Kenneth Tobin is a Presidential Professor of Urban Education in the doctoral program at CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. Throughout his career, he has published over 400 books, book chapters and journal articles in the topics of science education, teacher education, emotions, wellness, and research methods. According to Google Scholar his work has been cited over 17,700 times.

References

  1. ↑ Laurie Taetle and Robert Cutietta, Learning Theories as Roots of Current Musical Practice and Research, 279.
  2. ↑ Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education, Third Edition (2007: New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education), 5.
  3. ↑ Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education, Third Edition (2007: New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education), 9.
  4. 1 2 Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education, Third Edition (2007: New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education), 24-25.
  5. ↑ Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education, Third Edition (2007: New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education), 29-30.
  6. ↑ Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education, Third Edition (2007: New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education), 32.
  7. ↑ Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education, Third Edition (2007: New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education), 34-36.
  8. ↑ Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music Education, Third Edition (2007: New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education), 38.
  9. 1 2 Laurie Taetle and Robert Cutietta, Learning Theories as Roots of Current Musical Practice and Research, 280.
  10. ↑ Mark, M. Contemporary music education (2nd ed.) (New York: Schirmer Books, 1986)
  11. ↑ Lynn Dierking, "Learning Theory and Learning Styles: An Overview," The Journal of Museum Education Vol. 16, No. 1 (1991): 4-6.
  12. 1 2 Laurie Taetle and Robert Cutietta, Learning Theories as Roots of Current Musical Practice and Research, 281.
  13. 1 2 Laurie Taetle and Robert Cutietta, Learning Theories as Roots of Current Musical Practice and Research, 282.
  14. ↑ Laurie Taetle and Robert Cutietta, Learning Theories as Roots of Current Musical Practice and Research, 283.
  15. 1 2 Laurie Taetle and Robert Cutietta, Learning Theories as Roots of Current Musical Practice and Research, 284.
  16. ↑ Ernst von Glasersfeld, "An Exposition of Constructivism: Why Some Like It Radical". Journal for Research In Mathematics Education, Monograph 4, (1990): 19–29 & 195–210. ISSN 0883-9530.
  17. ↑ Laurie Taetle and Robert Cutietta, Learning Theories as Roots of Current Musical Practice and Research, 284–285.
  18. ↑ Laurie Taetle and Robert Cutietta, Learning Theories as Roots of Current Musical Practice and Research, 285.
  19. ↑ Peggy Dettwiler, "Developing Aural Skills Through Vocal Warm-Ups: Historical Approach of Pedagogical Approaches and Applications for Choral Directors," The Choral Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3 (1989): 13-15, 17-20.
  20. ↑ Alice M. Hammel, "Review Work: The Development and Practical Application of Music Learning Theory by Maria Runfola, Cynthia Crump Taggart," Music Educators Journal, Vol. 92, No. 5 (2006): 22-23.
  21. ↑ Ann Marie Musco, "Playing by Ear: Is Expert Opinion Supported by Research?" Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, No. 184 (2010): 49-64.
  22. ↑ Ann Marie Musco, "Playing by Ear: Is Expert Opinion Supported by Research?" Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, No. 184 (2010): 54-54.
  23. ↑ Ann Marie Musco, "Playing by Ear: Is Expert Opinion Supported by Research?" Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, No. 184 (2010): 57-58.
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