Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien

Dr. Markus Büring; Prof. Dr. Franz Riemer

Classwork plays a central role in school. Pupils are given smaller or larger
tasks, in varying methodical contexts. It's no different in music lessons. The
teacher's task is to find the "right" classwork. Is classwork with detailed,
methodical instructions called for, or an open project with lots of room for
creativity? Should teachers get involved in problem-solving projects or not?
What kind of classwork and how much teacher involvement brings about the
"best" results? What kind of classwork is possibly doomed to fail – and why?

These questions call for an empirical approach. We ask schools, classes, and
pupils to take part in the experimental study, in a larger number of small
groups of three or four. The groups and their members are asked questions
and filmed, and the information is analyzed. The tasks assigned to the groups
are related to the questions asked above, and are given in different ways. But
they always begin with the same anchoring story – a true event in the life of
Jacob van Eyk...

The conviction "that classwork as a functional component of institutionalized
teaching can contribute to its quality, because the tasks assigned can influence
learning processes and personality development" (Büring 2010, p. 17), reflects
the desire to examine the benefits and the future use (of the results) in
practice – this is how (empirical) teaching research must be legitimized!

The project was successfully concluded in 2010. The results have been
analyzed in a dissertation.

Büring, Markus: Lernumgebungen im Musikunterricht. Eine empirische Studie zur Wirksamkeit problemorientierter Aufgabensets (Forschungsberichte des Instituts für musikpädagogische Forschung, Bd. 24, hrsg. v. Franz Riemer), Hannover 2010 - see Publications