Research

A record number of Suzuki teachers, researchers and graduate students gathered on May 27 and 28, 2010, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the International Research Symposium on Talent Education. Dr. Robert Duke, Professor of Music and Human Learning from the University of Texas at Austin, was the graduate student seminar facilitator and keynote speaker. The symposium included discussions of research in progress, presentations of current research, and time to socialize and discuss research and statistical methods.

In an effort to develop more involvement of graduate students in Talent Education research, a graduate student research seminar was…

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Some of the good news is out with regard to David Gerry’s PhD thesis. You may remember from discussions during Suzuki ECE training or from the last two SAA conferences in Minneapolis that David undertook a project to examine whether or not Suzuki ECE plays a significant role in the development of babies in the very early years. Indeed he has been working steadily on this for a few years.

He has been working with Dr. Laurel Trainor. Laurel Trainor (Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster) is the founding director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind. She has done groundbreaking research on musical development in children and infants.

Read more of Early Childhood Research »

Dear Music Education Researcher:

Have you ever heard of a masterclass for researchers? Notify your students about this unusual opportunity with one of the foremost music education researchers in the country. The Tenth International Research Symposium on Talent Education will take place on May 27 & 28, 2010 at the Minneapolis Hilton Conference Center with Dr. Robert A. Duke, UT-Austin, as the keynote speaker.

On Thursday, May 27th, Dr. Duke will meet individually with each accepted graduate or doctoral researcher. The researcher will present their research idea or work in progress to the Symposium. Then, through a process…

Read more of A “Masterclass” for Graduate and Doctoral Researchers? »

Tenth International Research Symposium on Talent Education

Keynote Address by Dr. Robert Duke:
“How Children Learn…And How They Don’t”

Co-sponsored by the Suzuki Association of the Americas and the American Suzuki Institute

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Many of these articles can be downloaded from http://psycserv.mcmaster.ca/ljt/publications.htm

• specifically about Suzuki
  @ of particular interest to music educators
  $ review

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Suzuki teachers and parents, and many researchers gathered in Minneapolis May 22 and 23, 2008, to learn more about research and further the mission of the International Research Symposium on Talent Education. The number of participants at the Ninth IRSTE sessions has grown exponentially since the symposium became a pre-conference workshop at the previous IRSTE in 2006. At the ninth symposium we discussed research topics related to Talent Education and ways to develop research questions into projects. We discovered various ways to test crossing the mid-line, imitation in learning, and how sleep can affect learning and practicing for musicians. We also learned about a Suzuki program for at-risk students in New Jersey. Dr. Laurel Trainor, professor from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, gave a keynote address presenting an overview of her research with babies and children learning music.

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Laurel Trainor, director the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind has been awarded a grant from the Grammy Foundation to study the effects of Suzuki ECE music lessons on infants. She and research partner David Gerry hope to show that Suzuki ECE can improve their perceptual, cognitive and social development. Dr. Trainor was the keynote at the recent Research Symposium on Talent Education at the 2008 SAA Conference.

Read more at TheSpec.com

McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind website

Unpublished research papers relevant to Talent Education, early childhood development, and other related areas of music education are invited for presentation. Appropriate areas could include instrumental education, early childhood development, historical research regarding the Suzuki method, teacher-student interaction, and parental involvement in music education.

Papers must be no more than 25 pages in length. The author’s name, institutional affiliation if applicable, and mailing address should appear on a separate cover sheet.

Two copies of the paper and abstract must be submitted by April 1, 2008. Selection of papers will be determined by a panel of qualified readers. Authors will be notified by…

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There is a short write-up in the Washington Post about an interesting new study of Suzuki education and development of mental ability.

“The study of children 4 to 6 years old is the first to show specific cognitive benefits from musical training among the very young.”

Read more: Musical Training Benefits Kids’ Brains (free registration required).

Update: As mentioned by upbeat in the forums, the BBC also has a short article on this study: Music training boosts the brain