Joseph M. Piro

The effect of piano lessons on the vocabulary and verbal sequencing skills of primary grade students

A number of studies have reported positive associations between music experience and increased abilities in non-musical (e.g., linguistic, mathematical, and spatial) domains in children. These transfer effects continue to be probed using a variety of experimental designs. The major aim of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the effects of a scaffolded music instruction program on the vocabulary and verbal sequencing skills of two cohorts of second-grade students. One group (n = 46) studied piano formally for a period of three consecutive years as part of a comprehensive instructional intervention program. The second group (n = 57) had no exposure to music lessons, either in school programs or private study. Both groups were assessed on two subtests from the Structure of Intellect (SOI) measure. Results revealed that the experimental group had significantly better vocabulary and verbal sequencing scores at post-test than did the control group. Data from this study will help to clarify the role of music study on cognition and shed light on the question of the potential of music to enhance school performance in language and literacy.

Foucault and the Architecture of Surveillance: Creating Regimes of Power in Schools, Shrines, and Society

Michel Foucaults critical studies concerning regimes of power are of special interest when applied to architecture. In particular, he warned of the hazards of building surveillance into architectural structures for the purpose of monitoring people and took as his historical exemplar English philosopher Jeremy Benthams “Panopticon,” a structure originally used to assist in rehabilitating prisoners. He felt this kind of regulatory control resulted in maintaining power of one group over another. This article discusses what Foucault called the general ordering of the visible and the invisible by examining architecture as he viewed it—as an operation of power, control, and domination. More to the point, it places this belief in the context of power constructions in both sacred and school architecture and how this, in turn, creates a carceral society. This article also puts forward some of Foucaults thinking on architecture and connects this to his ideas of perceptual visibles and invisibles. The suggestion of schools as institutions of conformity and how their built environment functions as a regulatory force for this conformity is also explored.

Handedness and intelligence: Patterns of hand preference in gifted and nongifted children

The purpose of this study was to examine a putative association between patterns of handedness and intellectual ability in a population of 657 intellectually gifted and nongifted children, between the ages 8 and 14 years old. To probe whether distribution patterns of hand preference differed in this population, a modified version of the Dean Laterality Preference Schedule was administered. Results showed that, whereas more nongifted than gifted students distributed in the left‐ and mixed‐handedness categories, total mean handedness scores on the hand preference instrument did not differ in both populations. Implications of the findings for neuropsychology and education are considered.

Expanding Arts Education in a Digital Age

This article proposes a way to expand the study of arts education within new contexts of technology and globalization. Drawing upon theories that have informed arts and aesthetic education in the past, the authors suggest new applications for these ideas to ensure that arts education sustains its significance in twenty-first-century society. The article makes suggestions about how to redirect arts education policy to keep pace with rapid global and technological changes and developments in new media learning as students presently experience them. As an example of this change, a digital humanities project that uses Rembrandts art as a teaching resource is highlighted, and suggestions are made on how the program may be used to advance arts education and arts policy.

Laterality effects for music perception among differentially talented adolescents.

To examine the comparative nature of laterality patterns for music perception among differentially talented adolescents, 138 right-handed subjects (56 boys, 82 girls) trained in music, mathematics, and dance, respectively, were tested on dichotic chords and dichotic melodies tasks. Analyses demonstrated that only the musically trained subjects displayed task-dependent ear asymmetry, that is, a left-ear advantage for dichotic chords and a right-ear advantage for dichotic melodies. The mathematically and dance-talented students displayed a left-ear bias for both tasks of music perception. A control dichotic speech task showed a right-ear bias for all talent groups. The findings speak to how sensory information is managed by the mental-processing systems of differentially talented students and how talent training plays a role in shaping ear asymmetry.

No Association between Music Ability and Hand Preference in Children

ABSTRACT Hand preference was studied in 2 groups of children—children with musical ability and children without musical ability—to examine whether particular markers that may connect with handedness patterns, such as bias away from dextrality or mixed-handedness, stabilize during childhood and are associated with musical ability. Children were administered the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory to determine levels of right, left, and mixed handedness. Results demonstrated no differences in hand preference between both cohorts of children, suggesting the relative independence of musical ability and handedness. However, the inclusion of handedness as a motor marker for musical ability in children in conjunction with other preexisting neurocognitive factors cannot be entirely discounted.

Talent, special ability, and hemispheric processing

The role talent training and special ability may play in hemispheric functioning is discussed. Further research on hemispheric processing from the perspective of cognitive strength as well as deficit is suggested.