DESIGN OF MUSIC CURRICULUM AND TEACHING THEORY BASED ON COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

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Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 1193-1201

DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.361 1193

D

ESIGN OF

M

USIC

C

URRICULUM AND

T

EACHING

T

HEORY

B

ASED ON

C

OGNITIVE

P

SYCHOLOGY

Chiaoting Feng

Abstract

Music education can enhance the aesthetic ability and creativity of students, making them all-round talents. This paper firstly reviews the cognitive psychology theories related to music education. Next, the author conducted a questionnaire survey on the current situation of classroom teaching of music from the perspective of cognitive learning theory. The survey results show that the existing mode of music classroom teaching fails to enhance the cognitive abilities of students, and more students prefer music skills to theories. To solve the problem, several countermeasures were presented for music teaching based on cognitive psychology: adjust the focus of college music education, enrich the teaching modes of public music courses, improve the management of music education, and create a campus atmosphere that encourages students to engage in music practices. This research provides a new perspective for classroom teaching of music and promotes the reform of music teaching.

Key words: Music Education, Cognitive Psychology Theory, Music Teaching, Teaching Theory. Received: 24-02-19 | Accepted: 25-07-19

INTRODUCTION

At present, great importance has been attached to quality education in the education field. As an important content of quality education, music education is an important way to cultivate students' music literacy. And college music education has gained more and more attention (Düvel, Wolf, & Kopiez, 2017). With the development of music education, cognitive learning theory is a new teaching idea that is widely recognized by the education community. Its application in college music teaching has become a hot topic among educators, and has achieved sufficient results in practice (Biasutti, 2017). Therefore, we analyze and study the music teaching in regular colleges on the basis of cognitive learning theory, with the purpose of promoting the better and faster development of

School of Art, East China Jiaotong University, Nanchang 330013, China.

E-Mail: [email protected]

music teaching in regular colleges at a new starting point.

In music teaching, different people show different emotions in music teaching as they differ in emotional temperament. Nowadays, the music teaching system in many colleges and universities is not perfect, requiring the reform and innovation of educators. In the process of music teaching, teachers should pay special attention to their own education methods, and encourage students in time (Hong, Yeh, & Lee, 2014). This is the only way to enhance students’

self-confidence and strengthen their courage to go forward. Modern socio-economic development is fast, and music has a special artistic beauty. The music courses of many colleges and universities have drawn more and more attention.

The current research on music education teaching theories shows that music is an important object of cognitive psychology research and has been proved to be the form of existence of human wisdom, which shines a light in the direction of music education (Zandén &

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CHIAOTING FENG 1194

Thorgersen, 2015). Cognitive learning theory is one of the achievements of cognitive psychology research. It is basically consistent with the viewpoints of cognitive psychology, yet it enriches the research on the learning process on the basis of cognitive psychology (Tidemand & Nielsen, 2017). If music teachers can adjust their own emotions and moods, and improve their own cognitive evaluations through expected and required regulations in the teaching process, better teaching results will be obtained. Cognitive learning theory is the bright light that shows the direction of music education, and is very enlightening for music courses and teaching theories.

AN OVERVIEW OF RELEVANT THEORIES OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY IN MUSIC EDUCATION

Definition and connotation of cognitive theories

The so-called cognitive development is defined as the ways of thinking about things and problems and the performance of abilities along with the increase of age and the changes of environment. Formally formed in the 1960s and 1970s, the cognitive learning theory explores the law of learning by studying the cognitive process of human beings (Saito & Shintani, 2016). It holds that human is the main body of learning and can actively learn. At present, the most influential cognitive development theory is the cognitive development theory of Piaget, a famous child psychologist. Piaget divides

children’s cognitive development into four stages from the development of children’s

thinking: The sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete-operational stage, and the formal operational stage. The two

important of genetic epistemology proposed by

Piaget are “interaction theory” and

“construction theory”, and the construction theory is the core of Piaget’s genetic

epistemology.

Cognitive learning theory is a kind of theory that explores the changes of the current situation which are triggered by experiences. It believes that as the subject of learning, people perceive, notice and understand the information of the outside world, and divides human learning into information processing process from perception, paying attention, memorizing, understanding to problem solving (Roncaglia-Denissen, Bouwer, & Honing, 2018). It is a actively selective process, so the quality of learning depends on how active the selection is. Learning and learning psychology are analyzed from the perspective of cognitive theory, to reflect the subjective initiative that stimulates learning, which includes individual cognitive structure, cognitive ability and non-cognition (Ananthabhotla & Paradiso, 2018). Emphasizing external influences and self-development and strengthening the ability of independent thinking and research of problems can make the learning and learning psychology more mature and perfect. In the application in educational

practice, the importance of students’

independent learning ability in classroom teaching shall be established to fully reflect the connotation of the cognitive theory. An active learning atmosphere shall be created for college music classroom teaching according to the content of cognitive theory, to promote the

development of students’ music learning

initiative.

The theoretical research of Piaget's cognitivism is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

.

Theoretical research of Piaget's cognitivism

Early sensory processing

Pre-operational period Perceptual computing

period Maturity and

experience

social environm ent Specific

operation period

Formal operation

period

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DESIGN OF MUSIC CURRICULUM AND TEACHING THEORY BASED ON COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 1195

Main features of Piaget’s cognitive theory Piaget's theory has five major theoretical features which are widely accepted and heavily cited by the cognitive development community. These features are as follows:

(1) Emphasizing the universality of cognitive structure development;

(2) Assumption about the stages of cognitive development and the sequential order of the stages;

(3) Explaining the conversion of two stages and assuming that there is a large amount of energy in the inference structure;

(4) The main purpose of cognitive development research is to obtain a logical structure of inference which is formed in the fields of space, time, contingency, quantity and moral judgment;

(5) All structures are established during childhood. Children try to understand the surrounding environment. They neither passively accept the surrounding environment

nor directly express their biological instinct during their growth.

Inspirational significance of cognitive

psychology to music teaching theories

Inspired by cognitive psychology, students’

subjective initiative shall be stimulated to cultivate their creativity from the psychological point of view in the process of music education. At the same time, favorable music education environment and open music courses shall be created, so as to develop music education and improve the teaching results (Jalil, Habib, & Shah, 2018). The greatest inspiration of cognitive psychology for teaching theories is building the

theories upon the students’ psychology,

following the natural development rules of

students’ learning, paying attention to the

psychological characteristics of different ages rather than imposing teachers’ subjective

consciousness upon students just like pulling up

Table 1.

Main features of Piaget’s cognitive theory

Feelings Perceptions

Common point Both belonging to the primary stage of cognitive process, they are the reactions to objective reality, and the responses of human brain to objective things. Perceptions come

from feelings. Differences

Attributes Individual Overall Basis Physical characteristics of

objective things

Physical characteristics of objective things, attitudes of the perceiver and his/her knowledge and experience Involving

organs

Result of the action of a certain analyzing organ

Result of the combined action of multiple analyzing organs

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seedlings to help them grow. Students in regular colleges and universities are mature in psychological, cognitive and other abilities. The music education for them should focus on inspiring their subjective consciousness. Once they can learn music subjectively, they can explore creativity by their own.

From the psychological point of view, cognitive psychology emphasizes students' awareness and subjective initiative in music learning, and advocates stimulating students' awareness and subjective initiative of music cognitive behaviors from inside to outside for them to perceive their own music learning ability, learning level and creativity, then to explore on their own and develop their creativity (Barchana-Lorand, 2015). The purpose of music education itself is to provide students with lifelong interest, literacy, aesthetic ability and to spread the music culture.

The formation of students’ subjective

consciousness helps them to actively perceive music, explore music and create music, which brings infinite possibilities for their own music ability and music development. Thus, the positive role of cognitive psychology can be clearly seen.

The

significance

of

cognitive

psychology to music teaching theories is

shown in Figure 2.

INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SITUATION OF MUSIC CLASSROOM

TEACHING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY THEORY

At present, regular colleges and universities have incorporated music education into the formal quality education curriculum system. The current teaching situation has been greatly improved compared with that before the reform of the education system. However, the development of music education in regular colleges and universities still lags far behind other basic disciplines, which has affected the overall development of higher education. And

students’ music literacy still needs improving. As

the objectives of music teaching are ambiguous, it can be seen that there is no necessary logical starting point for the music education theories in

China’s regular colleges and universities, and the

teaching activities have certain blindness, which

music education in quality education, indirectly marginalizing music education in quality education. This violates the purpose of quality education. The analysis from the perspective of cognitive psychology theory shows that although the music curriculum and practice in colleges and universities are selective, it does not mean that schools can ignore the supply of related

resources, emphasize the meaning of “learning” but put off the responsibilities of “teaching”.

Colleges and universities should transform existing ideas and concepts, create a good teaching environment for students to learn music, and strive to get rid of the development dilemma of music education.

Questionnaire preparation and design

The questionnaire on the current situation of music education classroom teaching consists of four parts. The first part is about the cultivation

of students’ learning ability through music education; the second part is about students’

cognitive ability of classroom teaching; the third

part is about students’ monitoring of classroom

teaching; and the fourth part is about the views and opinions of students according to their own actual development needs in combination with the current school education models. A total of 215 questionnaires in the survey were distributed, 196 were recovered including 186 valid questionnaires, with an effective rate of 86%. This survey can accurately reflect the reality of music education classroom teaching.

Analysis of survey results

1) Survey on students’ cognitive ability As for “the courses that are the most helpful in learning music well”, 82% of the students

think that piano and vocal music are useful for future study, 12.6% choose education theory courses, and 4.6% of them believe that music education is of no help in study. It can be easily seen from the survey (see Table 2) that, most of the students tend to go overboard on one or some subjects, which requires music teachers to master appropriate teaching techniques, to

stimulate students’ enthusiasm for music learning.

2) Survey on students’ practical operation

ability in music teaching classroom

The smooth progress of classroom teaching benefits from the simple, clear and lively

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positive role in improving classroom teaching quality and teaching efficiency. The effectiveness of a teacher's classroom teaching depends to a certain extent on the ability of the music teacher to organize teaching. The teaching

effectiveness can be seen from the “survey on teachers’ teaching ability” (Table 3-4).

Survey results and analysis

Through the descriptive analysis of the survey sample data, the statistical analysis of the

motivation level of the students’ learning in

music classroom teaching is shown in Table 5-6:

Table 2.

Survey on preferences for music courses

Question Selection Number of

students Proportion

Most interested courses

Instrumental or vocal music 85 93% Impromptu accompaniment, singing and playing

at the same time, etc. 43 54.7% Music education theories 9 9%

Music teaching methods 13 11% Courses that are the most helpful in

learning music well

Music skills 73 84% Music teaching methods 16 14.7% Music education theories 14 13%

Table 3.

Survey on the practical operation ability in music teaching

Language proficiency in classroom teaching

Good 49 52%

Average 23 25% Not so good 15 17% Very good 5 6%

Ability to use multimedia

Knowing a little 37 38% Being familiar with a variety of multimedia

methods 26 29% Being a bit familiar 22 24.7%

Knowing nothing 5 4.8% Ability to master the classroom

atmosphere

Good 39 59%

Average 27 27% Very good 18 19% Not so good 7 9%

Table 4.

Survey on teachers’ teaching methods and types of practical activities

Teaching methods of music education teachers

Teaching by the teacher 52 54% Interaction between the teacher and

students 34 39% Watching the courseware 19 17% Types of extracurricular practical

activities

Music skills 49 57% Music competitions 25 25% Classroom teaching practice 16 23% Others 19 21%

Table 5.

Statistical analysis of learning motivation in music classroom teaching

Q Average value Standard deviation Variance

Internal motivation 265 3.467±0.1479 0.92427 0.953 External motivation 265 3.743±0.1725 0.87239 0.795

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Table 6.

Statistical analysis of students’ learning strategies in music classroom teaching

State of attention Type of instruction

Type of learning strategy item list

Ungrouped item list Grouped item list Mean Standard deviation Mean Standard deviation

DF-B

M 50/50

S

2.03 0.82 2.00 1.05

1.79 0.65 2.03 0.84

1.79 0.67 2.13 0.96

B-DF

M 50/50

S

2.09 1.09 2.45 0.95

2.21 1.03 2.17 0.96

2.37 0.87 1.67 0.89

Figure 3

.

Contrastive analysis of

students’

learning strategies in music education

According to the analysis of sample data, the overall learning motivation and learning strategies in music teaching are generally higher than the general level. Seen from the mean of internal motivation and external motivation,

students’ external motivation is higher than internal motivation. Next, a detailed statistical analysis of the distribution of the scores of

students’ internal motivation and external

motivation is carried out through frequency analysis. Figure 3-4 are the histograms of the distribution of the scores of students’ internal

motivation and external motivation. From the histograms, it can be seen that the frequency distributions of internal and external motivations at average level and above, and very high and very low internal and external motivations are all less. Figure 5 is an analysis of

the students’ learning strategies. The

distribution of the impact of music teaching learning strategies can be visualized from the figure.

From the above survey, it can be seen that the cognitive ability structure of students in music education teaching is not complete

neglect the study of teaching theory knowledge. Even some students pay less attention to the learning of music. Teachers should set objectives in music classroom teaching, help guide students to correct their problems found in the process of teaching and correct their learning attitudes, change old teaching concepts, and adopt novel classroom teaching methods to enhance

students’ passion for music teaching, so as to improve the quality of music classroom teaching.

Figure 4

.

Analysis of learning strategies in

music classroom teaching

COUNTERMEASURES AND SUGGESTIONS OF

MUSIC TEACHING PRACTICE FROM THE

PERSPECTIVE OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY THEORY

Transforming the concept of college music education

The concept of music education is the guiding factor influencing music teaching, and improving the ideological understanding of music education of school teachers and colleges directly determines the position of music

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and thinking ability, cultivate students’ noble personality, and offer students’ a richer life

perspective to colorize their school life. This education is emotional education and cannot be replaced by other subjects. It has a positive effect on the balance of intelligence and emotion, and the balanced development of IQ and EQ. Active participation in music activities can help students to develop a confident, cheerful and optimistic personality. Music education in colleges and universities is not to train musicians or artists, but to promote students' comprehensive and harmonious development through music teaching. Transforming the education concept of music teaching includes changing the ideas of the administrators, teachers and students in colleges and universities. The administrators should pay attention to the impact of music

education on students’ comprehensive quality,

and raise music education to a new height; teachers should have a solid foundation in music theories, change the way of pure skill teaching, and pay more attention to edification of music culture and emotional education; students as learners must realize that music education can improve their comprehensive literacy, give full play to self-motivation, and construct their own musical cognitive structure.

Enriching the teaching models of public music courses

With the continuous development of public music education in regular colleges and universities, the country has also put forward targeted development requirements and goals in line with quality education for public art education in college quality education. Public music education plays an important role in college education. Public music courses in colleges and universities is the main form of music education. In order to enrich the teaching models of public music courses, efforts should be made in the content of music education and teaching, and more suitable and diversified music teaching materials should also be selected. Music education is a step-by-step process from shallow to deep. The content of music teaching should be from easy to difficult,

and students’ music basic knowledge should be

fully considered. Colleges and universities may adopt the form of layered teaching to reasonably arrange the teaching resources, and select music materials suitable for learners of different levels.

In addition, it is also possible to construct a systematic music quality education curriculum system by setting up an open public music teaching system, such as combining music classroom education with psychology, sociology and computer courses. The openness of the public music teaching system is mainly reflected in the openness of teaching methods, the openness of teaching content and the openness of teaching evaluation. In terms of teaching methods, the openness of the whole teaching classroom can be achieved through carrying out situational teaching activities by actively adopting modern teaching methods rather than sticking to traditional ones. At present, the music courses offered in regular colleges and universities are mainly concentrated on music appreciation and theoretical research, which is

difficult to meet the students’ needs for music learning. Therefore, the curriculum of music teaching should be diversified.

Improving the management system of music education

In order to obtain better development in music education and teaching in regular colleges and universities, the institution building of music teaching must be strengthened and the overall management level of music education must be improved.

The concrete implementations are as follows: first, building a networked organization and management system, breaking the traditional centralized management mode, fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of all sides, to ensure complete and unified music teaching can proceed in an orderly manner; second, implementing scientific music teaching management, carrying out targeted teaching activities according to the

actual teaching situation and the students’

physical and mental development characteristics, to create a good atmosphere for music classroom learning.

Creating a campus atmosphere that facilitates students' independent participation in music practice

Creating a good music atmosphere is an effective way to achieve the objectives of college music education. Students can be motivated to actively explore through the creation of campus music environment. Colleges and universities should actively explore opportunities for students to participate in music practice

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Figure 5

.

Countermeasures of music teaching practice from the perspective of cognitive

psychology theory

Music Teaching Practice from the Perspective

of Cognitive Psychology

Theory

Music education

strategy

Transforming the concept of music education in colleges and universities

Enrich the teaching mode of public music courses

Improve the management system of music

education

Create a campus atmosphere that facilitates students' independent participation

in music practice

Improve music literacy

Cultivate students' comprehensive quality of

music

Diversified music materials

Strengthen the construction of music teaching

Improve the overall management level of music

education

Creation of campus music environment

Interacting music practice with other

disciplines

activities, and create a rich campus culture to

nurture students’ music literacy and interest in

music. The creation of music atmosphere can be achieved by holding various music talent competitions, through Interdisciplinary collaboration of music practice with other disciplines, or through exchange and cooperation with other colleges, and music groups. For example, colleges and universities can not only have their own teachers and students participate

in New Year’s concerts, but also invite well-known musicians or music groups to bring students closer to music.

CONCLUSION

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of music classroom teaching-the hot topic that has always been explored in the educational circles. Psychology is an important theoretical basis for music education activities. Cognitive learning theory is a learning theory that explores the

learning rules by studying human’s cognitive

process. Its application in music teaching in regular colleges, where students are the main body of music learning and teachers should

expands the thinking space of music classroom teaching activities, and also provides a new basis for the transformation and transition of practical teaching. Music teachers have to realize that

students’ needs shall be put at the center to continuously find ways to improve students’

classroom learning experience, and stimulate the continuous and sufficient learning motivation of the learning subjects, and all strategies, methods, concepts and principles of

“teaching” shall be applied with the focus on the

grasp of the characteristics, needs, laws and

rules of students’ “learning”, and mastered and

used flexibly in teaching. Therefore, teaching on the basis of diversified theories mastered through the analysis of music education psychology from the perspective of cognitivism can continuously improve and perfect the quality and taste of music classroom teaching. The music education in colleges and universities in China still faces some development problems, and the overall level of music literacy of college students needs to be improved. Therefore, it is necessary for us to reform the music education in colleges and universities, and to study the music teaching in colleges and universities from

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the development of music education and music teaching in colleges and universities.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences [grant number 17YJC760011].

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