The Relationship Between Thinking Styles and Learning Strategies of Students Studying in the Field of Music

Abstract

This research aims to reveal the relationship between the thinking styles and strategies used while studying and learning instrumental music in the music departments of the faculty of fine arts and Turkish state music conservatories. The study utilized a correlational design among quantitative research designs and simple random sampling among sampling methods (n=137). The normal distribution of the data was evaluated using histograms, Q-Q plots, and the Shapiro-Wilk test. The correlation between quantitative data was assessed using Pearson correlation analysis. There was no significant difference between the mean values of the sub-dimensions of the scales used in this research and the class variable (p>0.05). In the study, a significant difference was found in favor of males between the gender variable and only the ‘executive’ sub-dimension of the learning styles scale (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between the gender variable and the sub-dimensions of the scale of strategies used while studying and learning instrumental music. The results of this research indicate that students predominantly prefer comprehension monitoring strategies and least like articulation-organization and attention strategies used while studying and learning instrumental music. According to the average values of the study, it was revealed that the most common thinking styles of the participants were hierarchical, judicial, internal, and monarchic; they used liberal, external, anarchic, and oligarchic thinking styles at least, respectively. The data obtained from this research reveals that students do not use enough strategies while studying and learning instrumental music, regardless of their thinking styles. In this case, students should be informed about the use of learning strategies and encouraged to use them. For the teachers to make these referrals, they must be knowledgeable, equipped, and good observers. Pedagogical lessons can be added to the curriculum, including thinking styles and learning strategies, or course contents can be organized to include them.