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Behaviorism and Constructivism in Music Education

Linda Kiekel

Northern State University

MUS 775

Dr. Guilbault

March 26, 2023

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Behaviorism and Constructivism in Music Education

Most learning theories of the twentieth century can be labeled as either behaviorist or

constructivist. Many educators today favor constructivism because of its learner centric

design, and most twenty-first century music educators also favor constructivism and consider

how it should change the shape of traditional music education. This paper will examine

behaviorism and constructivism in turn, then consider where Music Learning Theory aligns

its foundational assumptions.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism, as the name suggests, is the study of the behavior of individuals

(Graham, 2019). The doctrine makes three essential claims. First, that psychology, being a

science, should only study observable behavior. Second, that behavior is determined only by

the environment. Third, that within psychology, mental terms and concepts should be

replaced with behavioral terms and concepts. Behaviorism believes that the mind is like an

empty white canvas and can be entirely shaped by the environment. Much of behaviorism is

now considered to be archaic, particularly because of its claim that behavior is only

influenced by the environment. However, applications behaviorism can still be found in most

of today’s classrooms.

Behaviorism defines learning as an alteration in behavior (Garnett, 2013).

Behaviorism is an easy default in music education, especially when the goal of learning is to

develop proficiency in musical skills. Any type of music education, from instrumental

ensembles to composing classes, can be taught with a behaviorist framework if the focus is

on the outcome instead of the process.

Constructivism

Constructivism is a learning theory based on the premise that people learn, think, and

develop through problem-solving (Web Solutions LLC, 2022). The theory states that learners
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construct their own understanding, and that learning requires a change in the learner.

Constructivism is the opposite of objectivism, which says that learning is a passive reflection

of external reality.

Jean Piaget developed constructivism in the early twentieth century (Huitt &

Hummel, 2003). Piaget described four stages of human development: sensorimotor stage,

preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage. He also

championed learning as a transformative process, rather than a cumulative experience. Lev

Vygotsky also contributed to constructivism during the same period as Piaget. Vygotsky’s

primary work studied learning through social interaction. He said that learning is

collaborative and becomes gradually internalized as the child grows older. Vygotsky’s most

well-known work studied the Zone of Proximal Development. Around the same time as

Piaget and Vygotsky, John Dewey was arguing that education happens through active

problem solving. He believed that learners need to engage in authentic experiences and

problem-solving situations within the school curriculum.

Constructivist learning requires a foundation of prior knowledge (Web Solutions LLC,

2022). When students recognize similarities between new problems and previous experience,

they will be more likely to recall what they already know. Information that is not connected

to prior experience will likely be forgotten. In the curriculum, constructivist learning favors

digging deeply into one idea rather than gaining a broad overview. The teacher is the expert

learner and the guide, who leads the students to self-test and articulate understanding, ask

deep questions, and reflect. The teacher conducts formative assessments through observing

an unfinished project and giving feedback.

Piaget’s (1896-1980) work asked the question: how do we come to know? (Huit &

Hummel, 2003). He answered this question through biology, examining the differences

between humans and animals. He concluded that humans are different than animals because
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humans can reason abstractly. The majority of Piaget’s work examined how children develop

this ability. He concluded that a child’s behavior is controlled through schema, which are the

ways that the child mentally organizes information. Children’s schemas grow through

assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation occurs when children manipulate their

environment in order to fit the pre-existing mental structures, but accommodation occurs

when children change their cognitive structures to adapt to the environment. Eventually, the

schemas develop into structures and hierarchical organization.

Piaget is perhaps best known for his four stages of cognitive development (Huit &

Hummel, 2003). Sensory Motor Stage is the first, occurring from birth until approximately

two years of age. At this stage, the child’s mobility is the sign of intelligence. An important

development landmark in this stage occurs around the age of seven months, when a baby

starts to realize that an object continues to exist and remain in its place when out of sight.

Pre-operational stage is next, beginning around the age of two. This stage is dominated by

language development. At this stage thinking is not logical, and students can only engage

with one concept at a time. Concrete operational stage develops around age seven, when

students can think systematically and logically. Finally, near the age of eleven, children begin

to develop in the formal operational stage. At this stage, they are able to think abstractly.

However, many Piaget scholars claim that up to two thirds of high school graduates have not

yet reached formal operational stage, and some adults never will.

At every stage of cognitive development, students need three types of knowledge and

learning (Huit & Hummel, 2003). They need to learn through physical interaction with

materials, which becomes logical-mathematical knowledge when physical interactions are

repeated in varying environments and they build to generalization. Social knowledge, or

learning by interacting with others, is also essential at every stage of development.

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The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) was Vygotsky’s primary contribution to

constructivism (Eun, 2019). His ideas showed how learning takes place through social

interactions. The ZPD is the distance between what a learner is capable of solving on their

own and what a learner can solve with the help of a more competent person. When a learner

solves a problem through support in their ZPD, that new information becomes internalized

and the ZPD expands. In the classroom, the ZPD helps the teacher plan learning that will be

achievable for the student. The teacher needs to recognize where the student is ready to

develop, and what the student can accomplish with help versus what they can accomplish on

their own.

Bloom’s Taxonomy is well known among educators because it breaks down cognitive

thinking into six levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis,

evaluation (Armstrong, 2010). By default, teachers tend to engage the lower levels of

understanding, but students are better served when they are asked to analyze, synthesize, and

evaluate to show understanding.

Gestalt Theory was developed on the Gestalt principles, which describe ways that the

brain perceives shape, form, and line (Todorovic, 2008). Essentially, Gestalt Theory assumes

that humans perceive things in their simplest form, and it makes three main conclusions.

First, learners are active, not passive. Second, learners process and restructure data before

storing it. Third, experience, needs and attitude all affect one’s perception. The word gestalt

means to understand the whole as greater than the sum of its parts, and the goal of Gestalt

Theory is to teach the brain to see the parts that make up the whole. In Gestalt Theory,

reproductive thinking requires a learner to solve a problem based on what they had previously

learned, whereas productive thinking requires the learner to structure new tools for finding

the solution.
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Donald Zentz commented on the practical applications of Gestalt Theory for music

education (1992). The brain organizes sounds into patterns in the same way that it organizes

sights. Thus, music teachers begin with concepts that are most easily recognizable, such as

the beat, and proceed from there to the more complicated aspects of music’s structure. Tonic

and rhythmic patterns are an essential part of any effective teaching method, and Gestalt

Theory also explains why it is necessary to start by presenting a whole idea before breaking it

down into parts. Then, after examining the small pieces, students need the opportunity to

engage with the whole again.

Application to Music Education

Garnett (2015) and Shively (2015) both published articles describing the true nature

of constructivism in music education. Both authors wrote that having a varied approach to

music education does not equal constructivism. Much of music learning is behaviorist,

because it is focused on the pre-determined outcomes rather than experiences where students

can construct and expand their schema. A true constructivist teacher involves all students

through engagement throughout the learning process, and does not merely step to the side.

Thus, it is just as possible to be a constructivist teacher in a traditional ensemble as it is to be

a behaviorist ensemble in a composition class.

How can we teach musical concepts while still allowing students to construct the

concepts on their own (Garnett, 2015)? If music making and music thinking are separated,

then we are teaching behaviorism. Constructivist teaching prioritizes the development of

understanding. Composing, listening, and performing are all ways that students show

understanding. Students are assessed as they show their musical competency, proving their

understanding.

The teacher’s role in the ensemble is that of the teacher-conductor who fosters the

musical thinking of the ensemble (Shively, 2015). The ensemble functions as a brain that
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makes musical decisions when encountering musical problems. The teacher is doing not

doing the thinking on their own. Another mark of a constructivist music teacher is that they

serve the students instead of the program. Their goal is individual students’ growth, not the

success of the music program.

Music Learning Theory

Edwin Gordon built Music Learning Theory (MLT) on the basic premise that people

learn music in the same way that they learn language (Gordon, 2012). MLT claims that it is

not a teaching method, but rather a psychological study and application. While other music

methods focus on the teacher’s process of instruction, MLT focuses on the child’s process of

learning and development.

Gordon differentiated between method and technique (Gordon, 2012). Method is the

“why” and the sequence of teaching. Technique is the things used to teach. Gordon gave the

example of using tonal syllables to teach audiation. The syllables are the technique, and the

method is decision to use syllables instead of note names or numbers and to use major

tonality instead of minor tonality.

MLT teaching uses the whole-part-whole structure, and the part is accomplished

through breaking down music into patterns (Gordon, 2012). MLT also focuses on awareness

of tonal center and meter, and it teaches rhythm through movement. Music skills can be

represented as a pyramid, moving from listening (at the bottom), through singing and

chanting, audiation and improvisation, and reading, until writing is the last skill on the top.

MLT also uses movable ‘do’ with la based minor (including the handsigns), du du-de rhythm

syllables, and teaches I-IV-V chord progressions.

MLT also uses musical aptitude, the potential for musical ability, to guide music

instruction (Gordon, 2012). The purpose of musical instruction is to develop audiation, which

is a term Gordon created to describe the act of thinking in music. There are six stages of
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audiation development, all rooted in listening: momentary retention; imitating patterns and

recognizing tonal center and macrobeats; establishing tonality and meter; remembering tonal

and rhythmic patterns; recognizing tonal and rhythmic patterns in new music; anticipating

and predicting tonal and rhythmic patterns.

Gordon stressed the importance of individual performance as necessary for the

development of audiation (Gordon, 2012). His three modes for teaching patterns provide

opportunities for solo singing. The teachers used teaching mode when they sung a pattern,

then inviting individual students to echo with the teacher. When using evaluation mode, the

teacher asked the student to echo the pattern independently, without teacher support. The

third mode (although perhaps the first mode in sequence) is class mode, which requires the

whole class to echo the teacher together.

Gordon recommended that pattern work occupy from 5-10 minutes each class period,

and that it should be related to the other activities of the lesson (Gordon, 2012). He suggested

that the tonality and meter should match the other lesson activities, but the patterns do not

need to be exactly extracted from the activities. New skills (like improvisation) should be

taught through the patterns, but new content (such as a new meter or tonality) should be

introduced first through the classroom activities, before being brought into the pattern.

Improvisation represents another important foundation stone of MLT (Gordon, 2012).

Gordon taught that improvisation should be approached sequentially, like all other skills in

the theory. First, students should learn how to sing, thoroughly learning many tunes by ear.

Along with the tunes they should learn the bass lines. When practicing improvisation, they

should start with the simple I-V-I chord structure. Improvisation should be focused on

hearing, rather than reading a set of written notes. Other recommendations include the use of

call and response and patterns to build up improvisation skills.

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Gordon wrote that students should be taught musical understanding instead of musical

appreciation (Gordon, 2012). He summarized his position with this quote: “the better students

understand music, the more they like music.” Gordon describes an individual with a

knowledgeable ear for music, who is able to analyze complex improvisations with joy. This

statement does cause some controversy. To what extent does music theory help us appreciate

the sounds of music, and to what extent does it distract?

One of the most difficult components of MLT is how to make the leap from sound to

sight while retaining audiational authenticity (Gordon, 2012). Gordon wanted

instrumentalists to be able to audiate what they see on the page, which means that they know

what the song will sound like without hearing or playing it first. Rather than using counting

systems or foot tapping, Gordon said that students should learn rhythm through free flowing,

continuous movement. He did this so that students could feel the space between the beats.

Students should learn pitch only after they can audiate patterns, so that they will avoid the

pitfall of taking each pitch out of context. Teachers can introduce notation only after the

students are able to improvise effectively.

According to Gordon, there are four music learning sequences: skill learning

sequence, tonal learning sequence, rhythm learning sequence, and pattern learning sequence

(Gordon, 2012). Skill learning sequence seems to describe the process of learning in tonal

and rhythm learning sequences, as skill learning sequence functions in conjunction with tonal

and rhythm learning sequences. Skill learning sequence is broken down into two main stages:

discrimination learning and inference learning. Discrimination learning occurs when students

realize they are being taught but they do not know what they are being taught. At this stage,

they can make comparisons and recognize relationships, and they can recognize what is

unfamiliar. Inference learning occurs when students are unaware that they are learning,
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because they are teaching themselves. At this stage, students can identify relationships in

content that is unfamiliar.

Tonal learning sequence works with pitch and keyality (Gordon, 2012). Gordon used

the term “do signature” instead of key signature because he used la based minor. Tonal

learning sequence begins with major and minor tonalities, then moves through the modes,

ending with polytonal music. Rhythm learning sequence assumes that rhythm is flow and can

be measured through time, space, weight, and flow. The sequence uses macrobeats,

microbeats and rhythm patterns, which must be taught through movement. Gordon

distinguishes between usual meter, which has equal macrobeats, and unusual meter, which

has unequal macrobeats. As in tonal learning sequence, here Gordon uses the term “measure

signature” instead of time signature, because he feels that this more properly describes the

function of the signature.

The final learning sequence is pattern learning sequence (Gordon, 2012). This

sequence describes the process of teaching tonality and rhythm, and it categorizes patterns as

easy, moderately difficult, and difficult. Tonal and rhythm patterns are taught differently at

every stage of the learning process.

Music Learning Theory and Constructivism

In the Gordon vs. Reimer debate of 1994, Reimer challenged Gordon and Music

Learning Theory, claiming that it was a behaviorist model (Reimer, 1994). Reimer supported

this claim by citing Gordon’s methodical use of patterns, and the expectation that if students

interact with the patterns in a particular, prescribed manner, they will gain musical

understanding. However, repetition of patterns is not cognitive learning, and Gordon offers

no explanation of the progression from repetition to understanding.

Gordon answered Reimer with the assertion that music must be understood in order to

be appreciated (Gordon, 1994). Audiation is the way that humans understand music. Because
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Gordon did not directly address the claim of behaviorism, the listener was left to consider

independently the validity of Reimer’s argument. If MLT produces students who can interact

with and manipulate music with ownership and autonomy, as Gordon claims, then the

outcomes of MLT are constructivist centric. Many of Gordon’s teaching methods are

supported by constructivism, such as the way that Gordon structures in the Zone Proximal

development, by using familiar and unfamiliar patterns to create and expand schema. The

idea of musical patterns itself is strong rooted in Gestalt theory. However, the exactness of

the MLT methods and the removal of music from its social and emotional context does bring

into question the scope of behaviorist or constructivist assumptions in the foundation of

Gordon’s work.

Conclusion

Most music educators in the twenty-first century support constructivist goals of

learner-centered instruction and development of understanding. Many find it difficult to adapt

music instruction to these changes, as most music learning is focused on development of skill

and producing a performance. Music education that wants to move past traditional

behaviorist teaching needs to focus on the process of learning, and the development of

musical understanding. Music Learning Theory offers one way to reach musical

understanding, though a strong music curriculum would need to also include musical

understanding within a cultural and emotional context. If, as constructivist teachers, we focus

on the process, we will continually adjust and adapt our teaching as we walk down the path of

musical understanding with our students.

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