Examining the Relationship Between the Thinking Styles and Some Demographical Variables of the Students Receiving Professional Music Education

Abstract

Thinking styles are considered as one of the elements that affect learning. In this context, this study was conducted with 94 students who studied at Atatürk University, Faculty of Fine Arts, at Undergraduate Level to determine the thinking styles of the university students who receive professional music education; and to investigate the relation between these styles and various demographical variables. The data of the study were collected by using the “Thinking Styles Inventory”. The inventory was developed by Sternberg and Wagner (1991) and was translated into Turkish by Fer (2005). Its reliability and validity studies were conducted. The Personal Information Form, which was developed by the author of the study, was also used to collect the data in the present study. The data that were collected by using the Thinking Styles Inventory and the Personal Information Form were analyzed by using the One-Way Variance Analysis (ANOVA), Tukey HSD test, and descriptive-statistical techniques. When the findings were analyzed it was observed that the Study Group generally had the Legislator, Executive, Judgmental, Hierarchical, External and Innovative Thinking Styles at higher levels. It was determined that the averages of the sub-scales of the Thinking Styles Inventory varied according to gender; however, these averages were generally above the medium level, and the highest average in women was detected in Monarchic Thinking Style sub-dimension while the highest average was detected in men in the Legislative Thinking Style sub-dimension. When the thinking styles were analyzed in terms of grades of the students it was observed that 2nd graders had mostly the Legislative Thinking Style; and 4th graders had the Legislative, Holistic and Local Thinking Styles at higher levels. It was also determined in the study that the average scores at Legislative, Executive, Judgmental, Hierarchical and Innovative Thinking Styles of the students, who were graduated from high schools other than Fine Arts High Schools, were higher than those who were graduated from Fine Arts High Schools. It was observed that there were no significant differences in the thinking styles of the students at the AGNO level and Individual Instrument variables.

Keywords

• Düşünme stilleri
• mesleki müzik eğitimi
• müzik
• müzik eğitimi.