Conceptual Changes
Conceptual Change: Considerations in Teaching Chromatic Harmony
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Benjamin K. Wadsworth
The field of conceptual change (starting with Posner et al., 1982) has tried to describe and explain the interaction between a student's current ideas and new, incompatible ones. Although conceptual change has been studied in instrumental music teaching (Bautista et al., 2009 and 2012), it has been overlooked in the teaching of music theory ("systematic musicology"). A prerequisite for studying conceptual change is the identification of "misconceptions," erroneous beliefs that can outlive instruction (McCloskey, 1983). This paper examines misconceptions in the chromatic harmonic unit of the core undergraduate theory curriculum. This unit expands the definition of chords to include chromatic notes or other exceptional situations. Students did an analytical assignment on chromatic excerpts (Schumann, Chopin). I classified their errors into the smallest number of possible categories, then linked each category to a likely mental schema. The errors were then tallied by chordal position in the excerpts (1-40) and by category (A-K). The results were averaged between myself and a colleague to minimize bias. The seven schemata, centered around a parent schema, the seven Roman numerals of the major scale as taught in Theory I, show that students are reducing out chromatic detail in favor of typical, stable chords, leading to harmonic errors, most commonly in biases toward small, consonant chords (16.8%) and stable inversions (14.2%); Tonic occurrences, however, are accurate (0.0%). This study suggests a renewed focus on chromatic chord spelling, and earlier in the curriculum (Theory I) than currently done.
He(art) and Soul and Science of Social Work Education: Revitalizing the Profession
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mark Smith, Sarah Lewis
Social work education is about the development of new social workers proficient in instigating personal and social transformation. This paper offers an opportunity for educators to learn about emergent pedagogical approaches and discoveries about teaching/learning that result in the development of fundamental skills for more effectively engaging others in change processes. By integrating recent scientific discoveries from neurobiology about how the brain learns and organizes knowledge, as well as highlighting affective and relation-based essentials of teaching/learning, the he(art) and science of contemporary social work education are revitalized. These discoveries are particularly relevant as educators encounter a new kind of learner in both the traditional classroom and in online settings who are more oriented to digital and media access of information.
Dual-Language Programme in Malaysian Classrooms: Parents’ Consideration, Concern and Consternation
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ashairi Suliman, Mohamed Yusoff Mohd Nor, Melor Md Yunus
Dual-Language Programme (DLP) is one of the avenues to promote bilingualism and nurture one’s language proficiency. With the growth of DLP in the United States, the proliferation has spread to other countries around the globe and Malaysia is at no exception. Having a slight difference in its implementation as compared to other DLP contexts, Malaysian DLP resembles the previous educational policy named English for the Teaching of Mathematics and Science, better known as PPSMI. Malaysian DLP focuses on the use of English as the instructional medium in the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics. For this to commence, parents’ consent to enrol their child into the programme are required. As a means to unveil parents’ views of the programme, this study divulges into the parents’ lenses focusing on the programme objectives and acceptance towards the programme. Given survey research design, this study employed questionnaire with some open-ended questions besides conducted semi- structured interview sessions as the instruments to gather the data. The study roped into a sample of 768 Malaysian DLP parents. The findings revealed parents’ concern of the programme besides unravelled some consideration and consternation that need to be addressed and rectified by the higher authority. In encapsulation, DLP is meant to enhance students’ language repertoire besides nurturing their interest in learning the content subjects. Support and provision from everyone is indeed fundamental. Hence, parents’ views are of paramount importance to ensure the betterment of the programme as it may affect their children’s future.
