What's new in pedagogy research?(Professional Resources)

We've all experienced it--two children begin lessons at about the same time, and within a year, one is playing with a fair amount of ease, while the other is far behind and struggling. Why does this happen? Is it just a difference in practice time, home environment or native intelligence? Gary McPherson investigated this issue in a study titled "From Child to Musician: Skill Development During the Beginning Stages of Learning an Instrument." (1) Previous studies in the area of successful musical skill acquisition found that high achievers often were particularly good at choosing and applying appropriate practice strategies, which helped them learn faster. McPherson further investigated these findings in this longitudinal study.

The study began with 157 children, ages 7 to 9, from various school districts in Sydney, Australia. They were enrolled in beginning school ensemble programs, with most of them learning the clarinet, trumpet, flute or saxophone. The children were interviewed at the beginning of the study, and then had additional interviews along with performance tests at the end of their first, second and third years. Each child's mother was interviewed at the outset of instruction and nine times in the following three years. Estimates of practice time were based on the mother's reports of the child's practice.

Five performance measures were tested and scored each year:

* Performing rehearsed music--judges evaluated difficulty of repertoire, standards of accuracy and musicality.

* Sight reading--the Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale was used for assessment.

* Playing from memory--the students were exposed to an unfamiliar notated melody for thirty seconds and then asked to perform the melody twice after the music had been removed.

* Playing by ear--the children were told the first note of a recorded melody, which was played for them four times, and then they were asked to play the melody twice exactly as they heard it on the recording.