A Reflective Lens: Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice | Page 14

Co-operative Learning Structure in Group Music Composition

Students should work in small groups of between four to
six members (Slavin, 1984) and each member has a role
to play such as group leader, time-keeper, scribe, and so
on. These roles have to be decided amongst the students,
rather than be prescribed by the teacher. Since the class
for this research consisted of thirty-five students, they were
divided into seven groups of five, chosen randomly to
ensure there was a good mix in each group. Each group
was heterogeneous with mixed-ability students of gender
and ethnicity mix; this was to ensure that everyone had
equal opportunity for success (Slavin, 1986). Students
remained in this group for the duration of the study. Each
group was given a task to complete (in this case, music
composition) within a stipulated time (Slavin, 1991). They
were also given time to plan their composition and practise
together (Wiggins, 1994).
The group goal was to complete a composition, with
notation, and to perform the composition as a group.
Each group member was required to contribute ideas, to
work together with others, and to motivate one another
(Slavin, 1991). However, an important element of cooperative learning structure is individual accountability to
ensure there is no free-rider problem (Johnson, Johnson &
Holubec, 1991). This individual accountability means, when
evaluating the group music composition, that there should
be a form of evaluation to determine if every student has
contributed and played his / her part in their group music
composition. This was done through the implementation
of peer evaluation at the end of the study.
To ensure a rigorous data collection process, ten students
were focused on from two different groups (i.e. Group
1 and Group 2). They were observed during the lessons
and interviewed after the lessons. For the benefit of
understanding the findings and discussion section, the
participants’ roles are illustrated in Table 1.

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