On the Nature of Knowledge: What We Want and What we Get With Measurement in Music Education
This paper is a philosophical argument about the possibility – or lack thereof – of truly evaluating music learning. The starting point is that the nature of knowledge conditions all assessment. For this reason, the first section is dedicated to discussion of the two global types of knowledge, positivist and interpretive. In the second section, these two kinds of knowledge to the different concepts of classical music are related. This is followed by discussion on how these two types of knowledge affect music education. Finally, conclusions state that positivist and interpretive knowledge are complementary. Instruction and assessment must be done according to the different circumstances of the instructional process, whereby a student interacts with his or her realm, using both the positivist and the interpretive.