Article selected: Using ePEARL for Music Teaching: A Case Study

Introduction
A research conducted by Upitis, Abrami, Brook, Troop & Catalano (2010) aimed to determine
the extend at which ePEARL promoted self-regulated learning in the private music lessons taken
addition to the music that is part of the school curriculum. The research was constructed under
the research questions which formed the basis for the research. This comprised of five questions.
The first question was to evaluate how the student and the music teacher use ePEARL to support
learning of music over the period of six months. The second question was to evaluate how the
student use ePEARL for other aspects of the making of music while the third question aimed to
examine how the students communicate with their parents, teachers and peers with the use of
ePEARL tool. The last question was to investigate extend at which student become more Meta
cognitively engaged due to taking part of his creative pedagogical method. Therefore, this
critical analysis evaluates the methodology and data analysis used by the researchers to make
conclusions and inferences.
Strengths and weaknesses of the research methodology
The research methodology used by the authors was based on the research questions formulated
by the researcher. This was helpful since the questions formed the reference and basis of the
study and hence operating under a specified scope. The research methodology was grouped into
two distinct categories which included selection of the studio teacher and the methods of data
collection. The main criteria used for the selection of the studio teacher for the study was based
on the willingness and ability of the teacher to explicitly teach the SRK skills. This can be
perceived as strength of the methodology since it helped to gain the best teacher who volunteered
without any persuasion from the researcher. This implies that the findings of the research was
based on the competency of the teacher but not on persuasion of the researcher. Another criteria
used for the selection of teacher was based on the teachers who were willing to learn how to use
ePEARL tool and then apply it creatively in the studio settings. This allows for the comparison
of the effectiveness and importance of the use of ePEARL among the teachers and compare with
the learning of music without ePEARL tool.
Data collection is another methodology strength portrayed in the study. The study employed
various sources of data to describe the case study. The first one was the portfolio itself which
included the student, teacher, parent and peer interactions on the home page, and the recorded
artifacts of the students playing over a period of six months as well as the recorded
demonstrations by the studio teacher. The second method of data collection was the studio
observations. The observations took place two times a month over the six months. The researcher
expounded on how this data was effective to the research during this period of study. The last
method of data collection was two interviews which were done with parent and the other one
with the child in the case study. Therefore, the strength of methodology was based on the method
of data collection and the scope of the study.
However, the methodology exhibited various weaknesses. Firstly, the study did not indicate the
research design used by the researcher. This is an essential aspect since it explains if the data
collected is qualitative or quantitative data. Another weaknesses of the research methodology is
that it did not state the scope of the study as well as the sample size of the data. This hindered the
reader’s understanding on the direction and scope
Strengths and weaknesses of data analysis
The analysis of the collected data was based on two phases. Firstly, the researcher focused on
how group of 8 students used ePEARL for the music activities. In other words, in first phase, the
researcher selected one student’s portfolio to showcase the purposes of the case study. In this
case, the case study was chosen since it comprised of examples of all the ways in which the
portfolio was used across the student’s body. This is called the portfolio analysis which was
supplemented by the field note observations, data from the interview from the teacher as well as
informal comments made by the student’s mother.
The second method of data analysis was based on how the teacher and the student used the
portfolio to support the music lessons. In this case, the teacher made a sample music recordings
for the student to learn. This was helpful to demonstrate the ability of the student to learn the
music with and without ePEARL tool. The analysis also expounded the interview data as well as
the case study data. This shows the strength of the data analysis since it covered all the data
collected in the methodology part.
However, the study demonstrated some weaknesses. Firstly, the author did not indicate the
method of data analysis based on the collected data. There author also did not indicate the nature
of the collected data for the analysis as either qualitative or quantitative data. Secondly, the
author did not showcase the model used for the data analysis which in turn limited that scope of
the study since there was no classification of the research questions in terms of variables and
deliverables.
Conclusion
It has been noted that this study exhibited both strengths and weaknesses based on different parts
and aspects of the study. This critical analysis has shown that the strength of the study was based
on the methods of data collected, research questions and approaches of data analysis. The author
formulated as many research questions as possible to expound all the possible deliverables of the
study. Also, the author used different methods of data analysis which in turn enhanced effective
data analysis. However, the author did not indicate the nature of the collected data for the
analysis as either qualitative or quantitative data. Secondly, the author did not showcase the
model used for the data analysis which in turn limited that scope of the study since there was no
classification of the research questions in terms of variables and deliverables.
References
Upitis, R., Abrami, P. C., Brook, J., Troop, M., & Catalano, L. (2010). Using ePEARL for music
teaching: A case study. In Proceedings of the international association for scientific
knowledge conference, 12(2), 36-45.