The First Cycle
I have finished the first cycle, here are the details which relate to each step on the diagram.
Analyse the
situation:
None of my students learn music theory in a separate class,
they have to learn it all from me. I am aware that this is an area of my
teaching I need to improve on.
Generate new theories
of change:
Could the use of a computer games based on elements of music
theory help me to be more systematic in my teaching of theory, help my students
to learn the concepts of music theory and increase their motivation to learn in
this area?[1]
Plan:
I made two games using Scratch and Makey Makey. One is a
note naming game based on the D major scale and the other covers note values. I
will try these games out with my students and interview them afterwards to get their
ideas. I will use my own observations, interviews with the students and the
scores they achieve while playing the game to help me evaluate and reflect on
how effective the use of the games has been and what needs to be improved on or
changed.
Act:
Round one complete!
Reflect and Evaluate:
I have decided to focus on developing the note naming game
for the rest of this project because it will be too much to develop both the
games at the same time. The note naming game was more popular and I think more
useful for my students currently.
As I watched my students playing the game I was expecting to
see them have fun and get increasingly higher scores. For the most part that
happened, but I think the most valuable thing that happened as I observed was
that I saw common mistakes appearing and this highlighted to me areas I need to
improve in my teaching. As I said in a previous
post, I became very aware that some of my students have not made the three-way
connection between where the note is on the stave, the name of the note and
where that note is on the violin. Another thing I have noticed now they are all
used to playing the game, the most common mistake is confusing F# and C#. These
are both things that I will now work on in our one to one lessons.
Reflecting on the comments made by my students, my music
teacher friend and my own observations I have decided that the next steps are to add a new level to the game and
change the background picture.
Once I have done that I will start with round 2 of action
research.
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