Abstract
This article presents the data of the significations attributed by students from the eighth year of Middle School to the notion of Music. Anchored in the Piagetian clinical–critical method and in the contribution of Genetic Epistemology, the research was carried out in a public school in the city of Londrina, Paraná, with the participation of 12 students. The results indicate that the notions of music are linked to the understanding of the social reality constructed by the participants. For this reason, by considering such constructive processes, through which social reality can be constantly signified by students, we aim to create opportunities for musical-pedagogical actions that favor the expansion of the idea of music and its domains.
Introduction
We start from the conception of music as a social phenomenon. There is no record of any society that does not conduct musical experiences as an expression and representation of symbolic-cultural aspects. However, this feature does not make music a “universal language” because each culture has different ways of elaborating, transmitting, and understanding its own music (Queiroz, 2004). Since music is a social practice, it adds non-esthetic aspects in its constitution, that is, aspects that transcend its esthetic structural dimensions. According to Souza (2004), such constitution characterizes it as a complex cultural system that brings together aspects established and shared by its practitioners, individually and/or collectively. Thus, the close relationship with culture, within each social context, gives music an important space with symbolic characteristics, uses, and functions that particularize it according to the specificities of the universe that surrounds it.
Music, as a social practice, creates different universes that are established not as territories differentiated by geographical lines, but as distinct worlds within the same territory, the same society, and/or even within the same group. Finnegan (2007) corroborates this idea by proposing that these musical universes are different not only because of their styles but also because of other social conventions, such as the subject’s subjectivity, their values, ideas and interaction practices, and the social organization of their musical practices.
In this sense, Swanwick (1999) takes music as a form of discourse of great relevance to music education. In one of the principles of musical discourse, Swanwick (1999) proposes the need to consider the students discourse, also revealing their musical baggage during the learning process. This attitude is a way to encourage the involvement and integration of students with the educational process and also a form to encourage the maintenance of curiosity, which is so necessary for musical learning.
When dealing with musical learning, Webster (2011) highlights that the mere mastery of facts, although necessary, is not sufficient for understanding. According to the author, the real learning of music comes not only from knowing “about,” but also from knowing “inside.” For that, the active engagement of the subject in the highest quality possible of musical experience becomes necessary. Under this viewpoint, the conceptualization results from a process of interiorization on which successive awareness occurs, respecting the laws of logic relevant to the subject’s cognitive structure (Stoltz, 2018).
We can see in the research carried out by Piaget that his greatest concern was the epistemic subject. His concern was focused on the epistemological scope of the problem, that is, on understanding how the subject knows the world (Chakur, 2009). Much research has been carried out in search of understanding social knowledge in the Piagetian theory. According to Chakur (2009), we can find research on this theme in the mid-1950s. However, it was in the 1970s that the number of these studies increased, precisely to set social knowledge apart from other forms proposed by Piaget (Delval, 1989; DeVries, 1997; Chakur, 2009).
The scope of representations of the social world is very wide and its limits are diffuse. That is, social knowledge refers to what is produced in different social contexts and which acquires meaning within relationships with others. We can distinguish central aspects and peripheral aspects. Probably, the central aspects of representation of the social world are the understanding of the political order and that of the economic order, which constitute the backbone around which other issues are organized—as shown in the studies presented by Emler et al. (1990) ; Delval (2009); Saravali et al.,(2011); Enesco et al. (2016). Social knowledge refers to what is produced in different social contexts and which acquires meaning within relationships with others. This object of knowledge can be characterized by different dimensions, such as the following: knowledge of self and others (psychological or personal knowledge), interpersonal relationships, social roles, norms that regulate behavior within the social group, and functioning and organization of society (economics and politics, among others) (Enesco et al., 2016).
In these studies, the authors present the results of several researches that cover different aspects of social knowledge, as well as different levels of understanding of the social world. This confirms the idea that social knowledge, as well as the other forms of knowledge studied by Piaget, is constructed (Coll & Gilliéron, 1987; DeVries, 1997; Youniss & Danon, 1992). The term construction in Piagetian perspective has a very significant weight, as it implies that one does not have a point of view or an absolute starting point for knowledge. Construction follows a fundamental principle of the functional continuity of constructive processes—such as reflective abstraction. Furthermore, it assumes that mechanisms concerning the continuity of knowledge—such as assimilation and accommodation—are common to all stages of development (Coll & Gilliéron, 1987). Such processes and mechanisms occur in the acquisition of physical knowledge, as proposed by Piaget.
Studies such as the one carried out by Stoltz (2018) reveal that the processes and mechanisms present in the construction of physical knowledge and social knowledge are analogous. Both in the physical and social world, the subject builds his conceptions through the resistance that the external reality offers him. Delval (1989) states that when there is no resistance, there is no construction. That is, when there is a confrontation against our expectations, a conflict arises that will need to be resolved somehow. This happens by means of the balancing process (Piaget, 1975), which means that even though knowledge is a social activity it requires an individual construction. In other words, the construction must be done by the individual. In short, that all knowledge is social and without society it could not be produced, as the subject needs this framework to develop (Delval, 1989).
Methodological design
The present study is defined by the qualitative approach, supported by four principles of the Piagetian clinical-critical method (Delval, 2001). The research was carried out in a public stitution in the city of Londrina, Paraná, with the participation of 12 students from the eighth year of Middle School. 1 The first is informal conversation and questioning in specific situations, aiming to understand the subject’s thinking.
The second principle adopted concerns the constant imposing of potentially problematic situations that must be resolved or explained, letting the researcher responsible to observe what happens and seek to understand the meaning of the answers. In the case of our workshop, we presented an extra-musical theme (the storm, the night in the castle, and the fair, among others) as a trigger for the constructions to be carried out by the subjects.
The third principle adopted refers to requesting the subject to justify their response to the generated conflict. At each moment, the experimenter must ask himself what is the meaning of the behavior observed and thus infer from the answers given by the subject the constructive processes involved.
In our workshop, we used this principle when the participants were invited to present their justifications for their choices, reporting to the group their creative process after the experience. The Piagetian clinical method allows the researcher to have access to the subject’s thinking in the analysis of action and conduct by means of interrogation and observation. The meaning produced in the workshop was constantly requested by the researcher, which made the musical game revealing of the constructions carried out. In Piaget’s clinical method, the elaboration of questions regarding the actions is fundamental to provoke the verbalization of thought and to allow the observation of the subject’s way of responding to the experiences.
The fourth principle adopted in our study referred to the opportunity for spaces of thought confrontation. We adopted this specificity of the clinical method by challenging the participants in different peer arrangements to make compositions, interpretations of their own and others’ compositions, and appreciations. This proposition envisaged the emergence of meanings of the experience and the construction processes involved in them.
In the theoretical contribution of Piagetian theory, according to the constructive way of understanding how subjects elaborate their notions about social reality, the clinical-critical method is used (Palacios & Castorina, 2014). The subject is constantly placed in problematic situations that must be resolved or explained by them. It is up to the researcher to observe what happens and seek to understand its meaning. The experimenter must ask themselves at each moment what the meaning of the behavior observed is and infer the constructive processes involved from the answers given by the subject (Delval, 2001). Thus, the clinical-critical method allows the researcher to access the subject’s thinking through the analysis of action, playful behavior and, as is the case in this study, through texts, pictorial productions, and their meanings.
For the identification of the workshop participants, we chose to use the nomenclature of the dodecaphonic, or twelve-tone, scale series, since it is a group of 12 subjects, which allows the preservation of the confidentiality of the participants’ names. The dodecaphonic series is composed of the 12 sounds provided by the western chromatic scale. 2 In the major or minor scale of tonal music, each note or degree of the scale has distinct characteristics and a different and hierarchical function in the music structure. In the twelve-tone series, however, the particularities of each sound remain, and the hierarchy of sounds is abolished. All 12 sounds are welcomed, that is, all sounds have equal importance in the structure of the work. This means that the 12 sounds will be present along the course of a musical work, each one appearing the same number of times. This way none of them will have been heard more often than the others when the piece is finished (Barraud, 1975, p. 85–86).
Profile of participants.
Source: Prepared by the authors.
The workshops comprised seven uninterrupted meetings, which took place once a week, during the after-school period, with an average duration of 2 hours each meeting. In total, there were six meetings involving the preparatory phase of discovering the sound material and the creative act comprising sets of compositions in different peer arrangements. The analysis of the results was carried out with two guiding axes: (1) the initial concept of music extracted from the meanings arising from the drawing and verbal report and (2) meanings of the creative process in the parameters of composition, performance and appreciation, through verbal report. The results of this research showed the relevance of workshops with musical games as an experience of producing meanings and as an opportunity to enable the observation of creative processes. At each meeting, discussions and reflections about the workshop of that day were held.
The focus that we prioritized for this article is the data collected in the first meeting, which enabled to understand how the subjects signified the concept of music. The methodological instrument presented here is the request for a drawing followed by its signification. In this sense, we asked them to produce a drawing based on the question: What is music for you? Next, we requested a caption for the drawing. The drawing and clinical interview of the meeting were carried out individually, with only the participant and the researcher present at the time of collection.
Result and discussion
For reporting purposes, we organized the answers given by the participants, in face of problematizing situations, into three categories that elucidate the different ways of understanding the notion of music, namely: (1) music as an expression of personal dimension, (2) music as the joy of collective work, and (3) expanded concept of music. We herein present the participants’ reports that exemplify the different notions. The categories are the results of the researcher’s analysis of the participants’ responses, seeking to find general trends in their responses and a logic for organizing ideas. In this sense, “we need to carry out an internal analysis of the explanations to see how the elements articulate with each other” (Delval, 2001, p. 167–168 - our translation). It is noteworthy that, by listing categories based on what emerges from the collected data, we do not intend to fragment the social, affective, and cognitive dimensions that make up the meanings of the subjects. But, in turn, to highlight what is most apparent or observable in the participants’ responses. All categories, therefore, must be understood in order to consider this dialectical and interdependent relationship between the dimensions that make up the integrality of thought.
Category 1—Music as an expression of personal dimension
This category brought together meanings that ranged from the location of music in the environment (but without a relationship with the activity developed by the subject) to those revealed through a personal dimension. That is, when asked to signify what music is, participants do so center on their own perspectives.
When writing about music in her life, C reports: “I listen to music in my house when I go to clean the house. I listen to music at school on my cell phone. When I’m using the computer, I also listen to music.” It is possible to infer from this report the role of music for participant C, linked to the performance of an activity. C drew the following drawing when representing the notion of music (Figure 1):
C’s answer reveals her relationship with music. Intuitively, there is an approach between music and everyday experiences, relating music to the activity of playing a musical instrument. It is as if music occupied a significant place because it constitutes everyday life and is present daily but linked to the dimension of music as background. The activities, therefore, are not necessarily related to music. On the other hand, C Sharp wrote the following caption when reporting the music in his life: “I like country music, [Brazilian] funk. […] I hate Justin Bieber and Restart, rock, oldy forró songs (sic.).” For C Sharp, music is related to his musical preferences. In his representation, he reinforces the preferred taste and style (Figure 2): C’s representation of the notion of music. 
It is worth emphasizing the need for participants, in this age group, to be inclined to their musical preference as a way to even create their own identity and as a form of acceptance in the group. They are clear about what they like and what they do not, reveal an affective organization in the relationship with some and not with others, values and positioning in the social group. This relationship between music and musical style preferences can be seen in D Sharp’s answer C Sharp’s representation of the notion of music.
When representing the notion of music, this participant drew (Figure 3):
In the representation of the meaning of music, D Sharp uses elements of musical writing in addition to presenting the acoustic guitar as a characteristic instrument of one of the musical styles he pointed out as his favorite—country music. As we work with teenagers, there is a strong relationship between music and everyday activities: going to school, walking, playing sports, dating. In addition, they present a conception of music linked to their favorite styles and singers. D Sharp’s representation of the notion of music. A’s representation of the concept of music. D’s representation of the notion of music.
When representing the concept of music, A produced the following drawing (Figure 4):
The meaning of music for A reveals affective components (conflict solving, joy, and color). In the same sense, D declares:
We notice the idea of affectivity attributed to music in D’s answer. Her representation of the concept of music reinforces what she wrote above (Figure 5).
By signifying her production, D declares: “I wrote music up here, signs down here, some notes. Because I like music so much. Music makes us think about things.”
The representation of the concept of music performed by D brings some specific elements of musical spelling, which is probably linked to her experiences in her family relationship, considering the fact that her brother studied the violin—as reported in her text. Such conception is also perceived in the representation and meaning of music perceived in B’s drawing (Figure 6): B’s representation of the notion of music.
B Flat attaches significant importance to music in her life:
The text reveals B Flat’s close relationship with music through her favorite singers and her special taste for some instruments. Such affective relationship with music is also evident in her representation of the concept of music. In the caption she produced, she attributes the following meaning: “music inspires me to do several things” (Figure 7). B Flat’s representation of the notion of music.
F attributes a religious meaning to music:
This conception of music linked to religiosity expresses ambiguous feelings present in the representation of the concept of music: “I feel sad,” “I feel happy,” “I am happy just for listening,” and “I cry.” This notion can be confirmed through the drawing, as we see below (Figure 8): F’s representation of the notion of music.
G shares a similar meaning with regard to religiosity, even though she prefers different musical styles as her text reveals:
Regarding the drawing, G made the following representation (Figure 9):
G Sharp, unlike the other participants, is studying a musical instrument—the acoustic guitar. However, the role attributed to music by him reveals a similar relationship to that of the other participants in this category. By representing the concept of music through drawing, he revealed his two passions—music and the soccer ball (Figure 10): G’s representation of the notion of music. G Sharp’s representation of the notion of music. F Sharp’s representation of the notion of music. E’s representation of the notion of music.
By signifying the drawing, G Sharp says: “I drew a heart because there’s no way to live without music. You don’t have happiness without music. You can’t live without it.” This answer reveals the degree of affection involved in the relationship that the subject establishes with music, literally expressed in the drawing he presents, a heart symbolizing the happiness that music provides. This category has revealed aspects of the participants’ relationship with music involving everyday practices, elements of identity with styles or musicians in particular, religiosity, etc.—aspects that easily refer us to social issues. However, we can also note that when participants signify the idea of music, they do it from the personal dimension, as demonstrated in sentences like “I prefer,” “I like,” “In my life,” “For me” etc.
Category 2—Music as a social value as the joy manifested from collective work
The second category presents data from only one participant, who attributed a to music as joy manifested from collective work. F Sharp’s representation reveals the joy of people producing music together Figure 11:
When F Sharp signifies his drawing, he says: “Music is joy! People are happy when they make music together!.” Although he mentions the feeling of joy when representing and signifying his own drawing, F Sharp attributes to music a social value because he considers the collective production of music as a source of joy. The feeling is the result of “doing together,” of producing with the other. That is, there is joy resulting from making music with others, a certain feeling of belonging.
Category 3—Extended sense of music
The third category also had only one participant. In this category, we took into account the meanings attributed to music as a comprehensive concept, that is, an understanding that includes of objects present in the acoustic environment in general. In this case, we highlight E’s text Figure 12:
E realizes as a possibility of music what the other participants did not point out—the sounds of objects and those of the soundscape. Evidently without naming the concepts, she brought up important concepts to think about music in a broader way. Her graphic representation of the concept of music resembles text, including sounds not traditionally related to music.
The significations of E reveal an expanded thought concerning the idea of music, insofar as it presents other possible meanings for the resolution of the issue—construction necessary for the creation of novelties (Piaget, 1981). By incorporating sounds from the acoustic environment itself as music, the significations demonstrate a certain decentering of oneself starting to consider other perspectives for solving the problem posed.
Final considerations
First, all participants carried out the drawing and its signification. The main results indicate that a significant part of the participants (10 out of 12) tend to signify music from their own dimension, which denotes a certain centering of thought—as revealed in category 1. The movements made possible by the interrelations observed in the significations of the participants in this study proved to be distinct, even though they were caused by problematizing situations guided by a similar methodological proposal and part of the same category of analysis. This leads us to conclude that the meanings of the notion of music reveal much of the participant’s cognitive development. Accordingly, we extract some pedagogical implications for music education:
In the perception of the musical discourse elaborated by our students, it is necessary to understand how they signify the object to be studied, in this specific case, music itself. If the teacher is capable of accessing such significations, he or she will have more favorable conditions to select objectives and musical contents aiming at the expansion of this notion and of the implicit social reality itself. In such case, it is not enough for the teacher to propose “ready” concepts to the students, but to create spaces for them to build such notions through successive awareness.
In a process of teaching and learning music based on Piagetian constructivism, as proposed in this article, the subject is encouraged to think about the object in question, having the opportunity to fill possible gaps through awareness that enables the formation of elements responsible for composing the cognitive structure. When the subject is faced with a problem, such as having to think about the notion of music and how it is present in their life, the mental structure suffers an imbalance, caused by the insufficiency of the elements already acquired to carry out such a situation—when there is grasp of consciousness. In this case, the workshops represent a significant strategy for music education, as they provide flexibility, challenge, and reasoning requirement, characteristic elements for constructivist learning.
Furthermore, we understand that such conceptions have direct implications on the way these subjects relate to music, whether through listening, performing, or creating music. Starting from a comprehensive conception of the concept of music, that is, since everything can be music—and why not? Everyone, without distinction, has creative potential and may become musicians Thinking about music beyond patterns duly cataloged by a given tradition allows us to (re)think and (re)define the notions of Art itself, of the Musician, and the role to be played by Music Education in the school context.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
