Effects of E. L. Thorndike's theory of connectionism rudiments on developing cello playing skills for beginners

Abstract

Problem Statement: Early traditions of cello playing developed in Europe in the 19th century with cellists such as Bernhard Romberg, Friedrich Dotzauer, Sebastian Lee and Carl Schroder. Numerous schools have interpreted cello education in different ways since then. However, the older cello teaching methods currently being used in many schools raise an interesting dilemma in contemporary cello education. The problem how we adapt the instructions of the 19th century traditions into the psychological and educational needs of the today's students seems very important. Purpose of Study: The aim of this study is to observe the effects of E. L. Thorndike's educational psychology rudiments, The Theory of Connectionism, on beginner cello students to encourage their creativity and self-actualization while being instructed in traditional cello education. Research Methods: Thirty beginner cello students from different social backgrounds between the ages of 11-15 were observed for a year during cello lessons, designed according to the essentials of Connectionism: Incremental learning, law of effect, law of exercise, multiple responses, prepotency of elements, response by analogy, identical theory of transfer, associative shifting, law of readiness, law of trial-error, and availability. Technical and musical development of the students were observed while teaching the works of Romberg, Dotzauer, Lee, and Schroder, and the relevant data was collected via recordings of these performances and cello lessons. Findings: Essentials of the Connectionism principles play a crucial role on developing cello playing abilities such as shifting positions, hearing correct intonation-musical sentencing and making logical connections between the essentials of different cello playing techniques on the compositions studied during this research. Conclusions: It is observed that Students have gained adequate technical efficiency to express unique musical ideas regardless of their social background and personal differences during the study. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Dr. Zafer Bekirogullari of Cognitive - Counselling, Research & Conference Services C-crcs.