Differences and interactions among cognitive style, gender, achievement, and mode of instruction of middle school music students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction of select variables (cognitive style, gender, and achievement) when middle school students are involved in learning about music through two different instructional modes. The two modes of instruction explored were a researcher-designed interactive hypermedia program and an expository teaching method. The sample consisted of the entire grade six and seven population of one public elementary school in a western Canadian city. A researcher-designed preknowledge test was administered to determine if any of the potential subjects had previous information about the lesson material--the steel band orchestras of Trinidad. To test for cognitive style, the Group Embedded Figures Test was administered to all potential subjects. Based on the results of these two tests, four groups were created: field dependent males, field dependent females, field independent males, field independent females. Half of the Ss from each of the four classifications were randomly assigned to the hypermedia instruction (experimental) group and the other half to the expository teaching (control) group. All Ss completed an achievement posttest immediately after treatment and a delayed posttest approximately six weeks later to test for long term retention. Results suggest that cognitive style, mode of instruction, and gender do not, either alone or in combination, affect long term retention of information by middle school music students. Irregardless of instructional mode, girls and boys in this project achieved similar results when measured using an achievement posttest. However, it was also found that field dependent female students using the hypermedia program achieved significantly lower posttest scores than any other combination of Ss' cognitive style, gender, and the mode of instruction being used. Contrary to previous studies, it was found that Ss receiving hypermedia-assisted instruction achieved significantly lower scores on the initial posttest than those experiencing an expository teaching lesson. Based upon these findings, recommendations for future research were made.