Rhythm tutor: Bridged constructivism in computer based music instruction.

摘要

This study examined the instructional effectiveness and motivational characteristics of 2 new computer based teaching strategies that augment constructivism: bridged constructivism and deductive constructivism, using a program called Rhythm Tutor to teach rhythm concepts to middle school students. In bridged constructivism, students transition from traditional didactic instruction to constructivism through intermediary bridge activities which are a combination of traditional and constructivist learning, designed to make students better prepared for the ill-structured constructivist environment. One type of bridge activity is deductive constructivism, in which students deduce new concepts from their contexts (traditional deductive reasoning) then use these concepts in their own new constructions (constructivism). Nineteen middle school students used the Rhythm Tutor program for a period of 6 weeks and completed several assessments in the cognitive and affective domains. Quantitative and Qualitative data analysis indicated that in this program, the constructivist bridge failed to prepare students for effective learning with constructivism. Students were highly motivated to do the constructivist activities and somewhat motivated to do the bridge activities, while deductive constructivism was found to help teach thinking skills. Some of the failures were due to poor program design, program errors, and problems with the testing procedures. Due to this and the small sample size, no conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of these new strategies from this study, and further studies are required.