| Scope and method of study. Musicians have always learned music in various ways, it is not known how individual differences are conceptualized as learning style and learning strategies preferences influence this learning. In addition, it is not known how the concept of creativity relates to learning music. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to describe the learning styles and learning strategies of formally-trained and informally-trained musicians and to explore creativity relationships when learning music. This was accomplished by identifying the learning styles and learning strategies of 109 students at Berklee College of Music and 30 Naturally-trained musicians in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Learning-Style Inventory (LSI) was used to measure learning styles, Assessing the Learning Strategies of Adults (ATLAS) was used to identify learning strategy preferences, and a 16-question survey measuring creativity constructs was created and also used. In addition, the exploratory portion of this study was accomplished by interviewing both Berklee-trained and Naturally-trained musicians. Participants ranged in the age of 20 to 55. Of the participants, 70% were males and 30% females. Over half were white; one-fourth were African Americans; and Hispanics, Asians, and Others made up the remainder of the group. Frequency distributions, chi square analysis, discriminate analysis, and cluster analysis were used.; Findings and conclusions. The study found the largest group for the LSI were the Divergers and the largest group for ATLAS were the Engagers. It also found that one's learning style and learning strategy group had no significance to one's level of creativity. Cluster analysis revealed four groups among the musicians and the prime item separating the groups was the Abstract Conceptualization Concrete Experience (ACCE) score. The groups differed in the extremes of feeling and thinking about the learning task and how they process information. Major conclusions are that the LSI and ATLAS are useful tools that accurately identify and describe learning preferences of formally and informally trained musicians. The qualitative data generated four conclusive themes disclosed by the participants which formed the acronym FREE which is composed of Flexibility, Resources, Exploring relationships, and Experience. Recommendations were offered to further develop learning style, learning strategy, and creativity concepts and to aid educators, administrators, program planners, and Naturally-trained musicians to recognize and identify their learning habits. |
