Variability of Practice as the Key to Creativity
It is frequently stated that creativity –or the ability to create effective novelty (Cropley, 1999)– is an important quality for both the individual and the society at large (e.g., Runco, 2004; Sternberg & Lubart, 1999) and that educating for creativity should be conceived a key mission in contemporary educational practice (Sawyer, 2006). Unfortunately, until now both education and psychology have largely failed to deduce a universal set of guidelines for creativity enhancement (see Nickerson, 1999, p. 407; Sweller, 2004, p. 19).
The intention of this PhD-project is to fill this gap and to contribute to a sound and empirically based instructional theory for enhancing creativity. Since an instructional theory for enhancing creativity is extremely broad, the scope of the project is constricted to the effect of variability-of-practice on learning the improvisation skill. According to Van Merriënboer and Kirschner (2007) variability-of-practice is probably the most commonly recommended instructional method for enhancing transfer of learning (cf. Schwartz, Bransford, & Sears, 2005) and for this reason contemporary instructional design models for complex learning emphasize it in their design methodology. However, the generic guidelines prescribed by these models are mainly based on (a) research on the acquisition of fairly simple (psycho-)motor skills (e.g., Wulf & Shea, 2002), (b) laboratory studies on learning complex cognitive skills (e.g., Paas & van Merriënboer, 1994), and (c) experiments in technical domains (e.g., de Croock, van Merriënboer, & Paas, 1998). Van Merriënboer, Kester, and Paas (2006) acknowledge this and emphasize that more research is needed with highly complex real-life tasks performed in ecologically valid settings. This PhD-project meets this requirement. It aims at validating the effect of variability-of-practice on learning a highly complex skill (improvisation) in an ecological valid setting (municipal schools of music).
The main research questions in this PhD-project are:
- Does variability-of-practice result in learning of the improvisation skill, and if so;
- What kind of varied practice enhances the acquisition of the improvisation skill.
Project Overview
Curricula
A curriculum for musical improvisation learning will be available in 2012
Publications and conference presentations
- four articles in SSCI journals
- four international conference papers (e.g., EARLI 2009, 2011; ICLS 2010)
- Wopereis, I. G. J. H., Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Kirschner, P. A. (2010). Improvising in music: A learning biography study to reveal skill acquisition. In K. Gomez, L. Lyons, & J. Radinsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences: Vol. 2 (pp. 419-420). Chicago, IL: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
- three national conference papers (ORD 2009, 2010, 2011)
- one article in a professional journal
Instruments and procedures
- Instructional design guidelines for learning the improvisation skill. These guidelines can be regarded an initial impetus for an instructional design theory for improvisation learning in the domain of music;
- A well-considered instructional framework for learning the improvisation skill resulting in several curriculum variations (products for Study 3 and 4);
- Improvisation measurement instruments and procedures.
- Drs. Iwan Wopereis (PhD candidate)
- Prof. dr. Paul A. Kirschner (supervisor)
- Prof. dr. Jeroen van Merriënboer (supervisor)
