The teacher-student relationship in one-to-one singing lessons : a longitudinal investigation of personality and adult attachment

• Main Author: Almeida de Sa Serra Dawa, Ana Sofia
• Published: University of Sheffield 2010
• Subjects: 707.1
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.522558

This research investigates the longitudinal implications of the teacher-student relationship in one-to-one singing lessons. The thesis consists of two parts: in the first part the expectations and realities faced by singing students are evaluated; in the second part, a longitudinal observation of teacher-student relationship is made and complemented with personality and adult attachment psychological scales. For part one, 64 students completed qualitative and quantitative questionnaires before meeting their singing teachers and 40 students completed the study (six months after meeting that same teacher) by returning questionnaires regarding the relationship. A comparison of the students' expectations and experiences of studentteacher interactions reveal high levels of satisfaction in regard to relationship and overall singing experiences. Students' descriptions indicated that teachers are generally seen as friends which consequently increases trust and confidence bringing benefits for students' personal as well as musical development. In the longitudinal study of part two, the participants were 11 singing teachers and 54 students United Kingdom and 'Portugal. The study had three stages where participants were video recorded during their one-to-one singing lesson. These recordings were complemented with the psychological questionnaires NEO PI- R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and Adult Attachment Scale (Collins & Read, 1990) to evaluate personality and attachment respectively. The longitudinal observation indicated that the relationships developed into becoming more personal and often included elements from the personal lives of both teacher and student. The interaction between teacher and student include a wide list of variables: personality combination, the individual background, style of attachment and many other singing aspects, suggesting that the relationship with the student could have major impact on other aspects of singing. This research has implications for practitioners concerned with matching and improving student-teacher relationships, and for researchers interested in the longitudinal factors in effective musical teaching and learning.