The Relationship Between Curriculum and Learner: Music Composition and Learning Style

Abstract

Effective learning experiences are believed to involve the various functions of learning, teaching, and curriculum. Furthermore, the content or substance of what is taught has inherent characteristics that can affect both student and teacher. Success in learning would thus depend in part on an individual's ability to adapt to demands and constraints made by these curricular characteristics. The focus of this study was the relationship of music composition (as one aspect of a music curriculum) with specific learning styles. A major emphasis concerned the development of a research model in which music composition was viewed as involving intuitive and rational musical abilities. Learning style was interpreted as the collective constructs of mediation ability (concrete and abstract perception paired with sequential and random processing) and perceptual modality (visual, aural, and kinesthetic sensory modes). Sixty-four high school instrumental music students in grades 11 and 12 participated in this research by completing two learning-style inventories (the Gregorc Style Delineator and the Edmonds Learning Style Identification Exercise) and a researcher-designed test of musical composition ability (Ability to Compose Music Exercise). Statistical analysis of these tests indicated significant relationships between (a) intuitive musical ability and the abstract random learning style, (b) perceptual modality and intuitive musical ability, and (c) perceptual modality and rational musical ability.

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