What is it about?
This study centers upon a piano learning and teaching environment in which beginners and intermediate piano students (N = 48) learning to perform a specific type of staccato were submitted to three different (group-exclusive) teaching conditions: audio-only demonstration of the musical task; observation of the teacher’s action demonstration followed by student imitation (blocked observation); and observation of the teacher’s action demonstration while alternating imitation of the task with the teacher’s performance (interleaved observation). Students submitted to interleaved observation were more proficient at the learned task with no significant differences for students of different proficiency levels.
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Why is it important?
The findings of this study suggest not only an important role for the observation and imitation of teachers’ action demonstrations for students’ learning in terms of knowledge retention but also that certain teaching and learning conditions (involving different combinations of observation and imitation elements) are more effective than others. Greater learning effectiveness resulted from observations that were intercalated with students’ immediate imitation of teachers’ action demonstrations, in comparison to a block of observations followed by a block of imitations to both beginner and intermediate proficiency– level piano students.
Perspectives
In contexts in which the intended learning outcomes involve the embodiment of abstract concepts in a motor activity, ascribing certain degrees of effectiveness to action demonstration strategies implies two things: (a) the need to consider such action demonstrations as communicational and an integral aspect of the content to be learned and (b) that empirical work should be carried out to unravel specific action and gestural performance demonstrations that can enhance motor learning across group-specific pedagogical contexts. The findings point to a need for a pedagogical reconceptualization in piano and instrumental music and in contexts of practical physical skill development and/or guided rehearsal to include considerations on the use of demonstration strategies. Thus, the training of music educators (and educators in other areas), presently highly focused on content and curriculum, needs to be expanded to include considerations into the development of interactive teaching and learning styles that can promote efficient learning. It is only upon recognition of the role and importance of teachers’ demonstrations and the interconnectedness of perceptual and motoric aspects that a much needed embodied and empirical gestural pedagogy can be developed for teaching conceptual and embodied practical elements directed not only to students but also to prospective teachers.
Lilian Simones
Queen's University Belfast
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Seeing How It Sounds: Observation, Imitation, and Improved Learning in Piano Playing, Cognition and Instruction, February 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/07370008.2017.1282483.
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