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Lead PI: Tiffany Roman
Team: Tiffany Roman, Rachel Sorenson
Project Summary: Research that matters in the field of education means investigating
socially responsible questions in collaboration with practitioners to address serious
problems related to teaching, learning, and performance. A learning context that is
often overlooked is the elementary music classroom, a place where teachers are expected
to show that all students, ranging from gifted to those with special needs, are meeting
state music education standards. Student standards include reading rhythm, keeping
a beat, singing, and *independently* playing an instrument. This is a huge challenge
for music teachers who have limited instructional time, large classes, and lack the
bandwidth to provide all students the feedback they need to feel successful.
To address this existing problem of practice, Dr. Tiffany Roman, an Associate Professor
in the School of Instructional Technology and Innovation (SITI), and elementary music
teacher and SITI doctoral candidate, Erin Collins, partnered together to eliminate
the complexities and barriers of music notation for young learners. They co-created
a digital tool that personalizes inclusive music learning at scale. The tool they
designed, SpectrumPlay, supports independent student learning and play by visually
simplifying music notation into scaffolded levels. Intended to be used with a color-coded
instrument, SpectrumPlay gives students voice and choice in their learning process.
Students are able to remain engaged, have fun, and learn independently.
With the support of the Seed Grant project, Collins and Roman were able to examine
SpectrumPlay with intended users (463 elementary students and their teachers) in an
authentic context (elementary music classrooms). Regardless of how teachers used the
tools in their instruction, following the use of SpectrumPlay, student perceptions
were positive across the motivational constructs of empowerment, usefulness, success,
interest, and [teacher] care.
At KSU, researchers and practitioners are working to eliminate the barriers and complexity
of music notation for learners with special needs. SpectrumPlay gives elementary music
teachers, like Erin, an easy-to-use software that supports tailored one-on-one music
instruction AT SCALE every single day.
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