2023-09-09, Imthurn, Gabriel

Im Vortrag wurde die Promotion "Assessment des Singens in der Sekundarstufe 1" vorgestellt.

2020-01-18, Imthurn, Gabriel

Das Beurteilen von Gesang auf der Sekundarstufe 1 wird meist noch als "Vorsingen" durchgeführt. Im Referat wird ein Gegenentwurf vorgestellt, welcher einen ganzheitlichen Assessment-Prozess von der Diagnose, über die Förderung bis zur Beurteilung des Singens zum Ziel hat. Dabei soll nicht nur die stimmliche Herausforderung der Pubertät in den Blick genommen werden, sondern auch die damit verbundene Persönlichkeitsentwicklung. Die während des Unterrichts entstehenden Resultate (Aufnahmen, Reflexionen) werden in einem Portfolio verarbeitet und dienen als Beleg der Leistung.

2016-07, Imthurn, Gabriel

Singing is an essential part of music teaching in most countries. Nevertheless, in many schools the singing does not take place or then with a poor quality. Martin Ashley locates in his new book «Singing in the Lower Secondary School» the reason in «lack of knowledge». That can not be seen only in England but also in Switzerland. In order to address this problem a (self-)learning environment for the subject singing will be developed. There are two main objectives. Teachers and pupils need to know more about the development of the youthful voice and singing in general. Three perspectives were taken to approach the singing: sound quality (voice change in puberty, articulation, vocal registers), singing melody lines (intonation, tonal imagination, sight-reading) and performance (singing alone or in a group, emotional singing). The second objective is the interaction in the classroom. Personal feedback and a more individualized approach seems to promise an improvement. A personal portfolio for each student provides the framework. The learning environment makes available knowledge in an easily and understandable manner, accessible to teachers and students. This leads to tasks which will be done either in the classroom, in groups or alone. The teacher's role is to schedule the tasks, to lead the class and to pay attention to the group dynamics. The pupils document the development of their voice in their personal portfolios. An object at the start could be a survey that produces a profile about singing and the recording of a simple tune. This might be the basis for the teacher to give personal feedback and to choose the appropriate secondary tasks for each student. One must keep in mind that the personal self-concept with respect to sing is a crucial factor for the success. We are already investigating several aspects in selected classes. One aspect is the use of recordings as a diagnostic tool. In an age of digital media, it is not a big effort to create recordings as homework. We found out, that these recordings lead to a different view and a better understanding for the teacher. It changes the way secondary tasks are chosen. The presentation lays a theoretical basis and shows parts of the learning environment and selected samples of a new feedback culture. This project is part of a project of the school of education of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland.

2022-07-18, Bächlin, Elina, Imthurn, Gabriel

There are several hurdles to overcome during adolescent voice change that affect self-concept and self-efficacy and go beyond feedback on singing performance or ear training. In the presentation, two examples of singing lessons will be outlined, following the concept of ‘possible selves’ (Markus & Nurius, 1986) that Freer (2015) proposes for working with boys during voice change. The two modules are part of a learning environment based on the narrative of a city that students inhabit, explore, and take ownership of through their learning activities with an avatar, with the city itself evolving as more modules are developed.

2020, Imthurn, Gabriel, Brophy, Timothy, Haning, Marshall

Although singing has long been the most important part of general music education in Switzerland, there are big differences in the quality of music teaching at the lower secondary school. The basic voice check was conceived as a diagnostic assessment tool to initiate a teaching development that also takes up self-acting and cooperative forms of teaching in singing lessons in order to counteract a didactic monoculture. The aim of the test is to gather basic information on the development of the voice of young people. A first form of the test was performed in different classes. The evaluation showed that an application of the basic voice check with the whole class was not effective, as many students showed hardly any abnormalities and there was a lack of a common language and the necessary know-how among teachers, which made a revision of the concept unavoidable. In the second part of the text I will describe how a browser-based test system is to be created which, on the one hand, enables direct and individual feedback in the browser in order to make the students independent and enable self-directed learning, and, on the other hand, provides data in the form of audio recordings for feedback from peers and teachers. The necessary know-how for the teachers must then be presented on the platform with examples, which will hopefully lead to a common language for the voice development at the lower secondary school.

2015, Imthurn, Gabriel

Das Erlernen von musikalischen Fertigkeiten wird in der «Music Learning Theory» von Edwin E. Gordon mit der Fähigkeit zur Audiation beschrieben. Dies kann mit «Denken in Musik» umschrieben werden und geht über manuelle Fähigkeiten eines Instrumentalisten oder die Fähigkeit einen Rhythmus zu klatschen hinaus. Ein Ziel der fachwissenschaftlichen Ausbildung für das Fach Musik (SEK 1) ist neben dem Erlernen von praktischen Fähigkeiten an einem Instrument und der Stärkung der Singstimme das Training von musikalischem Vorstellungsvermögen. Dies wird gebraucht, um neues musikalisches Material schnell aufnehmen und in geeigneter Form für den Unterricht adaptieren zu können. Das Referat soll mit dem Vergleich der Lernaufgaben zu Beginn der Ausbildung und den Testaufgaben im abschliessenden Leistungsnachweis zeigen, wie es möglich ist, Kompetenzen zu erlernen und diese in der abschliessenden Prüfung im praktischen Kontext abrufen zu können. Die Mehrheit der Studierenden bringt ein breites musikalisches Fachwissen mit. Für eine Minderheit ist der Start in die fachwissenschaftliche Ausbildung eine grosse Herausforderung, da in 14 Wochen das ganze Basiswissen für Musik erarbeitet werden muss. Die fachwissenschaftliche Ausbildung startet mit einem Lernsetting, welches auf der einen Seite schriftliche Übungen anbietet, auf der anderen Seite aber einen starken Fokus auf praktisches Üben setzt. Dazu wurde ein Gehörbildungslehrgang für das Programm Earmaster entwickelt, welcher in diesem Studienjahr zum ersten Mal obligatorisch als Studienleistung absolviert werden muss. Die Resultate werden automatisch in eine Datenbank auf dem Internet übertragen, was eine mehrdimensionale Auswertung möglich macht. Es ermöglicht Rückschlüsse auf die Qualität des Lehrgangs, auf die erarbeiteten Kompetenzen der Studierenden und auf die Wege, welche die Studierenden beim Training einschlagen. Der Abschluss der fachwissenschaftlichen Ausbildung erfolgt mit dem Leistungsnachweis, welcher einen schriftlichen und einem mündlichen Teil umfasst. Für den schriftlichen Teil wurden neue Aufgabentypen entworfen, welche praktische Herausforderungen aus dem Schulalltag simulieren. Damit werden die trainierten Kompetenzen in einem ganzheitlichen Rahmen getestet. Die Aufgaben verlangen nicht nur Fachwissen, sondern beinhalten immer auch kreative Aspekte, welche im Besonderen das «Denken in Musik» testen.

2022-07-18, Imthurn, Gabriel

The presentation will introduce an interview study among German-speaking music teachers that explores their perspectives on singing instruction. Earl's (2013) concept of assessment for, as, and of learning is used as the focus of inquiry to examine the collected data on singing instruction. In addition, poorly received studies from the English-speaking area (Cooksey, 2000; Ashley, 2015; Gackle, 2019; Welch, 2019; Harrison & Williams, 2019; Freer, 2020) are used to frame the central challenge of singing at the lower secondary school.

2016-07, Imthurn, Gabriel

Do iPads help to improve the quality of music lessons? Do students have a benefit in terms of their musical learning? Two apps have been tested and were placed in relation to traditional teaching. The first test had a focus on reading skills. Pupils had to practice reading treble and bass clef in a short-term test situation. Between the pre- and post-test, the class was divided in two groups and did exercises either on the iPad (iOs app Tenuto) or with pen and paper. In both groups a significant improvement was achieved. However, the difference between the two groups could not be measured. An accompanying questionnaire could at least show that the use of iPads was a motivating factor. For the second test the app «Do Re Mi Voice Trainer» was used. It draws the melodic contour of a sung melody as a line directly on the display. Two groups were formed. The first group did exercises under the guidance of the teacher. The second group practiced on the iPad. The goal was a better quality in intonation. For the pre- and post-test a simple tune was recorded. The quality factor was calculated from the differences of the sung pitch to equal temperament. The training with the teacher did not change the quality in a statistically measurable way. The intonation of the group which practiced on the iPads was significantly better. Both tests must be repeated in a different environment to be able to generalize the statements. But some aspects seem to be obvious. The tests refer to different teaching situations. The first one shows the iPad as a replacement of an existing method. The iPad does not improve the result. It may possibly be more fun. For this setting, we must deny the initial question. The second one shows a different picture. The significant improvement of the intonation seems to be the result of the visual feedback. In this case we have an extension of the methodological repertoire. The iPad is the teacher's assistant and improves the quality of feedback and thus the quality of the lessons. This study was carried out as part of a project about self-learning environments. One focus in this project is on how feedback can be created automatically and can itself serve as a motivation for adjustment or as a basis for feedback between teacher and student.