Research

The Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) sponsors the scientific evaluation of the "An Instrument for Every Child" programme in the Ruhr district and in Hamburg. These initiatives, financed largely from public funds, were determined to be suitable for research due to their duration, the high numbers of participants and the different basic conditions. The Ministry sees the possibility of promoting empirical pedagogical research in the field of music education based on these conditions.

Investment is provided for the research programme for an initial four years. One million euros will be put into the evaluation process until 2013. Larger research projects consist of several individual projects, in which interdisciplinary and cross-university associations work together in most of the cases. 25 scientists from various disciplines (music education, music science / music psychology, psychology, educational science) are taking part. It is centrally coordinated from the University of Bielefeld, with the University of Bremen administering the central data pool. This is to help avoid excessive researching of the schools.
The research projects also aim beyond the scientific findings to make use of their results in practical applications, thus contributing to critical reflection and the possible continued development of the "InstChild" programmes. 

The following research fields will form the object of the examination:

• Research of process analysis in the course of implementing the programmes
• Research on the relationships between various personnel and professionalisation  
  strategies, various teaching arrangements and teaching characteristics
• Research on the effects of musical teaching on the affected families, their respective 
  classes and schools, the opening of the ward and the interest of the town/city in the
  schools, participation in cultural competitions and other events
• Research (on a small scale) on the relationship between musical activity and
  structural and functional cerebral activity

The focus of the research projects include issues relating to the sponsorship of individual InstChild children, cooperation strategies of those involved in InstChild, transfer effects of music education, the possibilities for cultural participation in the context of InstChild, the impact of "InstChild" on music preferences and the influence of instrument teaching on the emotional and cognitive behaviour of students.