A multidimensional/non-linear teaching and learning model: teaching and learning music in an authentic and holistic context

Abstract

This article discusses the conceptual framework that leads to the design of a teaching and learning model as part of a recent ethnographic study that considered the effectiveness of current Victorian government secondary school music teaching and learning practices when engaged with technology. The philosophical and theoretical basis for this research relies on three contentions: valued knowledge, authentic learning and multidimensional/non-linear learning. These three contentions, working simultaneously, introduce the notion of a holistic perspective and practice of learning. In this research, such a notion is defined and referred to as the ‘whole-person phenomenon’. This is the foundation for a multidimensional/non-linear teaching and learning model that can be applied in any educational context. This model is extended to the teaching and learning of music and in turn its application leads to a matrix or a multidimensional/non-linear model that encompasses all facets of music practice. This article will explore each of the research contentions, conceptual framework, multidimensional/non-linear teaching and learning model and music education matrix. While this recent research is situated in Victoria, Australia, and specific to music education, it is applicable to any contemporary teaching and learning context.

Keywords:

• music education
• music technology
• authentic learning
• valued knowledge
• multidimensional learning
• holistic learning
• whole-person phenomenon
• teaching and learning model

Notes on contributor

Dr Renée Crawford is a music educator who has published widely both nationally and internationally in her field. She is currently a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University and a Research and Evaluation Consultant for organisations such as the Starlight Children's Foundation. Her previous position as the Research & Learning Senior Coordinated for a social enterprise educational organisation saw her manage high-profile national research projects in collaboration with The University of Melbourne, Victoria University, Australian Council of Education Research and research consultancy Educational Transformations. The significance and nature of the impacts and outcomes of these recent research projects has influenced governmental education, immigration and Arts and culture policy. Her musical interests are in composition, film music, minimalism, the analysis of contemporary Australian music and the use of digital technology in music. As an advocate for the use of technology in education in an appropriate and contemporary way, her Ph.D. research completed at Monash University was based on the philosophy of authentic learning and technology in music teaching and learning practices.

Notes

1. Detailed information on the survey design and results can be found in the following publication: Crawford (2008a).

2. Smith and Osborn (2003) explain the aim of IPA in detail: ‘The aim of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is to explore in detail how participants are making sense of their personal and social world, and the main currency for an IPA study is the meanings particular experiences, events, states hold for participants. The approach is phenomenological … in that it involves detailed examination of the participant's lifeworld; it attempts to explore personal experience and is concerned with an individual's personal perception or account of an object or event, as opposed to an attempt to produce an objective statement of the object or event itself’ (51). Therefore, a double hermeneutic or two stage interpretation process is involved: (1) the participants are trying to make sense of their world and (2) the researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense of their world.

3. Victorian curricula includes Curriculum Standards Framework II (CSFII), the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS), the Victorian Certificate in Education (VCE), the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) and the Vocational Education and Training in Schools (VET in Schools) at Years 10, 11 and 12.

4. A ‘blog’ is a website in which items such as text, pictures, media files and links to other websites are posted on various topics on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term ‘blog’ is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring, maintaining or adding to an existing blog is called ‘blogging’. Since its appearance in 1995, blogging has emerged as a popular means of communicating, effecting public opinion and mass media globally.

5. Capital Research Limited was established in 1994 by Dr Charles Sullivan and Dr Fiona McPherson. The New Zealand-based organisation provides expert research and evaluation advice on memory, learning and curriculum (Capital Research Limited 2007).

6. Elliott (1995) considers listening and recording separate from the music making facets he explains are performing, improvising, composing, arranging and conducting. While the researcher's multidimensional model requires a relationship between all of these musical facets holistically, when each is considered separately, a distinction is also made between recording and arranging. Although these two facets are similar in process, for the purpose of this study they are regarded separately.

7. It is important to distinguish that the matrix presented in this study is based on Elliot's 1995 framework and encapsulates a complex holistic non-linear/multidimensional concept. This is in contrast to the more simplistic 1970 MMCP curriculum concept spiral that is based on a sequence, which denotes linearity of five music facets defined as pitch, rhythm, form, dynamics and timbre (Thomas 1970).