THE EFFECTS OF ACTIVE LEARNING ON PROSPECTIVE MUSIC TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TOWARD MUSIC THEORY COURSE

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THE EFFECTS OF ACTIVE LEARNING ON PROSPECTIVE

MUSIC TEACHERS' ATTITUDES
TOWARD MUSIC
THEORY COURSE

• Ass. Esin UÇAL CANAKAY
• Dr. Sermin BILEN
• Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Education
  Music Education Department
• IZMIR-TÜRKIYE

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• Music training plays an important part in the
• - artistic
• - cultural
• - aesthetic development of individuals
• MUSIC TEACHER

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A qualified music teacher must be able to

• carry out the formal and
• harmonic analysis of a song that
• s/he will teach in class,
• write an instrumental accompaniment,
• simultaneously play and sing a song,
• have his/her students listen to various
• works of music of different kinds and
• forms,
• organize activites that will bring out their
• creativity

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
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Music Theory

• Music Theory,
• Ear Training,
• Musical Creation,
• Musical Analysis
• Turkish Music Polyphonisation

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The aim of Music Theory course is

• to bring the prospective music teachers to the
  level where they can carry out the harmonic
  analysis and polyphonisation of a piece of music
• to develop their musicality
• to develop their musical creativity.

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• Music training plays an important part in the
• - artistic
• - cultural
• - aesthetic development of individuals
• Music Teacher Free Learning Environment
• ACTIVE LEARNING

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• In traditional teaching methods the students
• are seated to see eachother's back
• no interaction is allowed to take place among
  them
• only listen or take down notes while the teacher
  conveys the information verbally or by writing on
  the blackboard
• are passive during most of the classes except
  when they participate in the process during the
  question-and-answer stage.

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• Traditional teaching methods do not afford the
  students the opportunity to interact, socialize,
  develop group-work skills, express themselves,
  come up with new ideas and think creatively.

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• However, in Active Learning
• the students learn how
• to work as a team,
• to cooperate,
• to divide labor,
• to form a common view through discussion

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• Active learning is based on the constructivist
  learning theory.
• In active learning, the restructuring of the
  information he/she has acquired appears among the
  basic steps of the decisions and responsibilities
  taken by the student.

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• Active learning is a process where the learner
  bears the responsibility of learning and is
  afforded the opportunity of taking decisions
  related to various aspects of the learning
  process, disciplines him/herself and is forced to
  make use of his/her mental abilities through
  complex educational activities (Açikgöz, 2003
  17).

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The basic steps of the responsibilities and
decisions taken by the student in active learning
are delineated below

• Determination of the target
• Establishment of the self-confidence necessary to
  turn to face the target
• Planning how to reach the target
• Determination of the people or institutions who
  can help reach the necessary information
• Understanding the things learned and making
  deductions
• Merging/connecting the things learned with
  existing knowledge
• Restructuring information and deciding upon the
  application
• Transfer of the information into other fields
• Evaluation of the experience
• Realization of one's mistakes and deciding how to
  correct them.

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TEACHING APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
BELIEFS AND VALUES OF THE STUDENTS
(ATTITUDES)
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• Attitude is a condition of readiness for an
  activity.
• Attitudes are in the mind of the individual and
  form the basis of many ideas and forms of
  behavior.

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• Attitude incorporates three components covering
  the dimensions of thought, emotion and behavior
• Cognitive component The beliefs, thoughts and
  information arrangements of the individual
  towards the object of the attitude constitute the
  cognitive component.
• Affective component Includes the emotional
  reactions such as liking or affection.
• Behavioral component Represents the
  predisposition of the individual to act in line
  with his/her thoughts and emotions towards the
  object of the attitude.

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The three components of attitude is illustrated
with an example
The Three Components of Attitude
(Kahn, 1984 quoted in Bernstein et al., 1994 p.
624)
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• Educators who wish to contribute to the quality
  of learning contents must focuse on developing
  and improving the objectives, beliefs and
  attitudes of the students to increase motivation.
• Therefore it is crucial that the educators
  prepare learning environments that will
  accentuate the achievements of the students and
  allow them to experience success.

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The Problem Sentence

• Do the effects of the active learning methods
  on the attitudes of prospective music teachers
  toward the course of Music Theory diverge
  meaningfully from those of the traditional
  teaching methods?

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• The subjects consist of 26 1st-year students
  studying in the Department of Music Education in
  the Faculty of Education in Dokuz Eylül
  University, in the academic year 20062007.
• The subjects were split into two equivalent
  groups with respect to their attitude toward
  Music Theory course as judged by pretest results,
  one of which was designated as the experiment
  group and the other one as the control group.

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Research Model
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TRADITIONAL TEACHING
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ACTIVE LEARNING
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Comparison of the Pretest and Posttest Points
Scored by the Experimental Group in the Scale of
Attitude toward Music Theory Course
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Comparison of the Pretest and Posttest Points
Scored by the Control Group in the Scale of
Attitude toward Music Theory Course
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Comparison of the Attitude of the Experimental
and Control Groups Concerning Music Theory Course
Based on Posttest Points
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• Active learning methods help create significant
  differences on the attitudes of prospective music
  teachers toward Music Theory course as compared
  to traditional teaching methods.

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