| The research project sought answers to the primary research question: How do group process and culture interact and influence informal adult learning in groups? The study of a church choir included participant observations of 35 rehearsals and 43 choral presentations over a ten month period. Twenty-seven individual and two group interviews were also conducted. The goal was a rich description of the choir culture and the process used by its members to learn and create music together.;Coding of common themes was done by reviewing field notes made from rehearsal videotapes and transcriptions from audiotaped interviews. Comments, observations, and events seen as reflective of the choir's culture or process were tagged, creating 109 codes of common themes and patterns.;The description of the choir's culture included the rules and norms, newcomers' experiences, and attempts to change the culture. Two key cultural elements appeared. The weekly personal sharing time called Joys, Concerns and Announcements helped transform the group into a community. The ritual opening and closing of rehearsals with the same two hymns frames the time together as one of praise and worship.;The study also described the choir's group process. Formal instruction was only one aspect of the weekly task of mastering new music. Learning was also facilitated by repeated practice, personal study, and the buddy system. Choir members with professional musical training functioned as unofficial choir consultants to the group and choir coaches to members of their voice sections. Description of group process also included formal and informal leadership, communication patterns, conflict, and cohesion.;Discussion of the study's results used the emerging paradigm of social systems as complex, nonlinear, and dynamical. Concepts from complexity science were used to focus on interconnections, relationships, and patterns. Interactions that repeated across scale emerged as fractal patterns, providing clues to the core values of the culture and underlying shared assumptions. Individuals and sub-groups at all levels of the choir system demonstrated humor, helpfulness, gratitude, and worship. Viewing singing as worship rather than performance was identified as a key organizing principle of the Chancel Choir. |
