Rhythm teaching strategies in primary education: An exploratory study with Mexican teachers

Abstract

Rhythmic training in primary music education is essential for the development of perceptual and expressive skills. This study is based on previous research conducted in Chile, adopting its theoretical foundations and purposes to explore similar elements in Mexico. The aim is to identify and analyze the ways in which Mexican Primary Education teachers approach rhythm in the classroom, contrasting their perceptions with previous findings linked to the cognitive processing of rhythm and related teaching strategies. Two focus groups were conducted with music teachers in Mexico, who shared experiences and practices related to their pedagogical approaches and resources used for rhythmic training. The teachers use methodologies adapted to the available resources and spaces, combining body movement, percussion with small instruments, and musical repertoires. Rhythm teaching relies on experiential approaches, although the effectiveness of these practices is hampered by the lack of infrastructure perceived by participants. Still, the use of popular repertoires, such as Cri-Cri music, facilitates a meaningful cultural connection in the classroom, while teaching strategies foster rhythmic comprehension in students and interconnect with findings in rhythmic cognition research.

Keywords

• musical rhythm
• rhythmic training
• teaching strategies
• music teachers’ perceptions
• Mexico

İlköğretimde ritm öğretim stratejileri: Meksikalı öğretmenlerle yapılan keşifsel bir çalışma

Abstract

İlköğretim müzik eğitiminde ritim eğitimi, algısal ve ifade becerilerinin gelişimi için çok önemlidir. Bu çalışma, Şili’de yapılan önceki araştırmalara dayanarak, teorik temellerini ve amaçlarını benimseyerek Meksika’daki benzer unsurları araştırmaktadır. Amaç, Meksikalı ilköğretim öğretmenlerinin sınıfta ritime yaklaşımlarını belirlemek ve analiz etmek, onların algılarını ritimin bilişsel işlenmesi ve ilgili öğretim stratejileriyle bağlantılı önceki bulgularla karşılaştırmaktır. Meksika’daki müzik öğretmenleriyle iki odak grup çalışması gerçekleştirilmiş ve öğretmenler, ritim eğitimi için kullandıkları pedagojik yaklaşımlar ve kaynaklarla ilgili deneyimlerini ve uygulamalarını paylaşmışlardır. Öğretmenler, mevcut kaynaklara ve alanlara uyarlanmış metodolojiler kullanmakta, vücut hareketleri, küçük enstrümanlarla perküsyon ve müzik repertuarlarını bir araya getirmektedir. Ritim öğretimi deneyimsel yaklaşımlara dayanmaktadır, ancak katılımcıların algıladığı altyapı eksikliği bu uygulamaların etkinliğini engellemektedir. Yine de, Cri-Cri müziği gibi popüler repertuarların kullanılması, sınıfta anlamlı bir kültürel bağlantı kurmayı kolaylaştırırken, öğretim stratejileri öğrencilerin ritim anlayışını geliştirir ve ritim biliş araştırmalarındaki bulgularla bağlantılıdır.

Keywords

• müzikal ritim
• ritmik antrenman
• öğretim stratejileri
• müzik öğretmenlerinin algıları
• Meksika

References

1. Álamos, J., & Pérez, M. (2015). Cognitive parallels between music and mother tongue in Elementary School students. An empirical study on the influence of verbal language and specific melodic issues on the short term memory. Revista Electrónica de LEEME, 35, 1-27. https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/LEEME/article/view/9866
2. Álamos-Gómez, J. (2023). Approach to musical rhythm in Primary Education. Perceptions of Chilean specialist teachers. Revista Electrónica de LEEME, 51, 36-54. https://doi.org/10.7203/LEEME.51.25579
3. Álamos-Gómez, J., & Tejada, J. (2020). Interrelations between action and cognition. Contributions of neuroscience to education of music rhythm. Opus, 26(2), 1-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.20504/opus2020b2606
4. Álamos-Gómez, J., Tejada, J., & Moreno, L. (2023). Cognitive connections between body movement and rhythmic training in Primary Education. A study with music teachers in Chile. Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado, 98(37.3), 187-202. https://doi.org/10.47553/rifop.v98i37.3.100661
5. Almeida, M. (2016). Selecting the choir repertoire: The conductor’s job?. Música Hodie, 16(2), 25-34. https://doi.org/10.5216/mh.v16i2.45212
6. Barrett, M. (2013). Sound lives in and through music: A narrative inquiry into a young child’s “everyday” musical participation. In M. Díaz & A. Giráldez (Eds.), Qualitative research in music education (pp. 117-141). Graó.
7. Benoit, C., Ferreri, L., Lega, C., & van Vugt, F. (2022). Rhythm in human cognition and action: Health and pathology. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1047825. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1047825
8. Bobin-Bègue, A. (2020). Tempo as the foundation for musical abilities and a scaffold for the development of social cognition. Enfance, 1(1), 109-129. https://doi.org/10.3917/enf2.201.0109

9. Bowling, D., Hoeschele, M., Gill, K., & Fitch, W. (2017). The nature and nurture of musical consonance. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 35(1), 118-121. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2017.35.1.118
10. Bulger, D., Milne, A., & Dean, R. T. (2022). A point-process model of tapping along to difficult rhythms. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 111, 102724. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmp.2022.102724
11. Burger, B., London, J., Thompson, M., & Toiviainen, P. (2018). Synchronization to metrical levels in music depends on low-frequency spectral components and tempo. Psychological Research, 82(6), 1195-1211. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-017-0894-2
12. Capistrán-Gracia, R. (2024). Music education research in Mexico. An exploratory-diagnostic study. Revista Electrónica Complutense de Investigación en Educación Musical, 21, 55-66. https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/reciem.80621
13. Drake, C. (1998). Psychological processes involved in the temporal organization of complex auditory sequences: Universal and acquired processes. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 16(1), 11-26. https://doi.org/10.2307/40285774
14. Durá, J., & Tejada, J. (2021). Rhythm pattern discrimination by primary school students. Research Studies in Music Education, 43(3), 528-547. https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X19869056
15. Faure-Carvallo, A., Gustems-Carnicer, J., & Guaus, E. (2022). Music education in the digital age: Challenges associated with sound homogenization in music aimed at adolescents. International Journal of Music Education, 40(4), 598-612. https://doi.org/10.1177/02557614221084315
16. Ferreri, L., Versace, R., Victor, C., & Plancher, G. (2022). Temporal predictions in space: Isochronous rhythms promote forward projections of the body. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 832322. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.832322
17. Fiveash, A., & Pammer, K. (2014). Music and language: Do they draw on similar syntactic working memory resources?. Psychology of Music, 42, 190-209. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612463949
18. Fiveash, A., Bedoin, N., Gordon, R., & Tillmann, B. (2021). Processing rhythm in speech and music: Shared mechanisms and implications for developmental speech and language disorders. Neuropsychology, 35(8), 771. https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000766
19. Fujii, S., & Wan, C. (2014). The role of rhythm in speech and language rehabilitation: The SEP hypothesis. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 777. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00777
20. Fujita, T., & Yamamoto, S. (2011). The development of children’s understanding of mathematical patterns through mathematical activities. Research in Mathematics Education, 13(3), 249-267. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794802.2011.624730
21. Godoy, M. (2021). Pedagogical-musical criteria applied by choir directors to choose repertoire in children’s choirs. Revista Electrónica de LEEME, 48, 79-93. https://doi.org/10.7203/LEEME.48.20979
22. Grahn, J., & Brett, M. (2007). Rhythm and beat perception in motor areas of the brain. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19(5), 893-906. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2007.19.5.893
23. Hannon, E., Soley, G., & Ullal-Gupta, S. (2012). Familiarity overrides complexity in rhythm perception: A cross-cultural comparison of American and Turkish listeners. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38(3), 543-548. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027225
24. Hannon, E., Vanden Bosch der Nederlanden, C., & Tichko, P. (2012). Effects of perceptual experience on children’s and adults’ perception of unfamiliar rhythms. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1252(1), 92-99. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2012.06466.x
25. Haumann, N., Vuust, P., Bertelsen, F., & Garza-Villarreal, E. (2018). Influence of musical enculturation on brain responses to metric deviants. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 12, 218. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00218
26. Holliman, A., Wood, C., & Sheehy, K. (2010). The contribution of sensitivity to speech rhythm and non‐speech rhythm to early reading development. Educational Psychology, 30(3), 247-267. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410903560922
27. Jacoby, N., & McDermott, J. (2017). Integer ratio priors on musical rhythm revealed cross-culturally by iterated reproduction. Current Biology, 27(3), 359-370. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.031
28. Kotz, S., Ravignani, A., & Fitch, W. (2018). The evolution of rhythm processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22(10), 896-910. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.08.002
29. Levitin, D., Grahn, J., & London, J. (2018). The psychology of music: Rhythm and movement. Annual Review of Psychology, 69(1), 51-75. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011740
30. London, J. (2012). Hearing in time. Oxford University Press.
31. Matthews, D., Ubbes, V., & Freysinger, V. (2016). A qualitative investigation of early childhood teachers’ experiences of rhythm as pedagogy. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 14(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X14523745
32. Merchant, H., Grahn, J., Trainor, L., Rohrmeier, M., & Fitch, W. (2015). Finding the beat: A neural perspective across humans and non-human primates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1664), 20140093. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0093
33. Møller, C., Stupacher, J., Celma-Miralles, A., & Vuust, P. (2021). Beat perception in polyrhythms: Time is structured in binary units. Plos One, 16(8), e0252174. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252174
34. Nozaradan, S. (2014). Exploring how musical rhythm entrains brain activity with electroencephalogram frequency-tagging. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1658), 20130393. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0393
35. Orts, M., Pérez, M., & Tejada, J. (2014). Effects of modes of information on the accurateness of rhythm production by Middle School students. Revista Electrónica de LEEME, 34, 36-55. https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/LEEME/article/view/9863
36. Öztürk, A. (2010). Evaluation of the teachers’ views on the rhythm practices in musical activities in preschool institutions. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 3638-3645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.566
37. Patel, A. (2009). Music and the brain: Three links to language. In S. Hallam, I. Cross & M. Thaut (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of music psychology (pp. 208-216). Oxford University Press.
38. Pérez-Moreno, J., & Reverté, L. (2019). Children’s favourite musical activities as explained by four-year-olds. A case study. Revista Electrónica de LEEME, 1(43), 19-34. https://doi.org/10.7203/LEEME.43.13985
39. Polak, R., Jacoby, N., Fischinger, T., Goldberg, D., Holzapfel, A., & London, J. (2018). Rhythmic prototypes across cultures. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 36(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2018.36.1.1
40. Polevoy, G. (2020). Development of a sense of rhythm in children 8-9 years old with the help of exercise ‘Classic’s’. Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 49(2), 140-144. http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljch.v49i2.8961
41. Purwins, H., Grachten, M., Herrera, P., Hazan, A., Marxer, R., & Serra, X. (2008). Computational models of music perception and cognition II: Domain-specific music processing. Physics of Life Reviews, 5(3), 169-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2008.03.005
42. Ravignani, A., Delgado, T., & Kirby, S. (2017). Musical evolution in the lab exhibits rhythmic universals. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(1), 0007. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0007
43. Repp, B., London, J., & Keller, P. (2011). Perception-production relationships and phase correction in synchronization with two-interval rhythms. Psychological Research, 75(3), 227-242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-010-0301-8
44. Sammler, D., & Elmer, S. (2020). Advances in the neurocognition of music and language. Brain Sciences, 10(8), 509. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10080509
45. SEP (Secretariat of Public Education) Government of Mexico. (2011). 2011 Curriculum Programs: Primary Teacher’s Guide, First Grade, Arts Education. https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/15233/PRIM_1ro2011_Artistica.pdf
46. SEP (Secretariat of Public Education) Government of Mexico. (2024). Curriculum Program for Primary Education: Synthetic Program for Phase 3. https://educacionbasica.sep.gob.mx/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Programa_Sintetico_Fase_3.pdf
47. Snyder, B. (2000). Music and memory: An introduction. The MIT Press.
48. Soley, G., & Hannon, E. E. (2010). Infants prefer the musical meter of their own culture. Developmental Psychology, 46(1), 286-292. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017555
49. Springer, D. (2016). Teaching popular music: Investigating music educators’ perceptions and preparation. International Journal of Music Education, 34(4), 403-415. https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761415619068
50. Stupacher, J. (2019). The experience of flow during sensorimotor synchronization to musical rhythms. Musicae Scientiae, 23(3), 348-361. https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864919836720
51. Stupacher, J., Wrede, M., & Vuust, P. (2022). A brief and efficient stimulus set to create the inverted U-shaped relationship between rhythmic complexity and the sensation of groove. Plos One, 17(5), e0266902. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266902
52. Tomlinson, M. (2013). Literacy and music in early childhood: Multimodal learning and design. SAGE Open, 3(3), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244013502498
53. Ullal-Gupta, S., Hannon, E., & Snyder, J. (2014). Tapping to a slow tempo in the presence of simple and complex meters reveals experience-specific biases for processing music. Plos One, 9(7), e102962. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102962
54. Vazou, S., Klesel, B., Lakes, K. D., & Smiley, A. (2020). Rhythmic physical activity intervention: Exploring feasibility and effectiveness in improving motor and executive function skills in children. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 556249. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.556249
55. Vicente-Nicolás, G., & Mac Ruairc, G. (2014). Music activities in primary school: Students’ preferences in the Spanish region of Murcia. Music Education Research, 16(3), 290-306. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2014.912261
56. Vuust, P., & Witek, M. (2014). Rhythmic complexity and predictive coding: A novel approach to modeling rhythm and meter perception in music. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1111. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01111