Exploring contexts for development: Secondary music students’ computermediated composing

This article is from an ongoing doctoral study working towards an understanding of compositional development that attends not only to the processes and products of composing but also to the social and cultural contexts that shape classroom computer- mediated composing processes. The case reported in this article is part of a multiple case study carried out with classroom music students aged between 14 and 16 over twelve months. Changes in students’ composing processes are explored over time through the systematic mapping of their composing strategies. Rich data banks generated from participant observations, video observations, MIDI recordings, semistructured interviews, documents and computer files were constructed and videostimulated recall interviews are used to position the students as collaborators in the research process. The findings describe a transition through three phases of development that are distinct both in the physical tools employed and the nature of the composing context. The findings suggest a need to increase the range of resources available to music students in schools.