Developmental Psychology and Music Education

Abstract

The gulf between research in music psychology and practice in music education presents a perennial and pressing problem, and Psychology of Music provides an appropriate forum in which to tackle it but a brief analysis of the contents of the first ten years of the journal suggests that we still face an uphill task. Viewing this problem from a developmental perspective may enable researchers to organise their knowledge such that it is more readily amenable to practical application, and this article sets out the potential scope and aims of a developmental psychology of music. Some growing areas of research are described in each of the three main theoretical perspectives within the subject, namely cognitive psychology (development of melodic processing, singing, and children's representations of music); cognitive-developmental psychology ("music conservation", and the development of aesthetic sensitivity); and behavioural psychology (motiv- ation, affect, and classroom music learning). The developmental perspective should be able to make a direct contribution to issues in music education such as the relationship between formal and intuitive musical understanding, the place of composition, improvisation and non-traditional musics in the curriculum, and the role of assessment and evaluation.

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