In this study we analysed some features of 45 Spanish piano teachers’ conceptions about teaching and learning. Analyzing their written answers to an individual questionnaire exploring didactic ideas, by means of the lexicometric program SPAD-T (version 5.5), we could see lexical differences among groups of teachers, divided    according to their professional experience. Factorial correspondence analysis was applied to the aggregate lexical table. The modal response procedure was also employed. Results revealed three groups of teachers with  different conceptions, relying on one of the following representations concerning learning and instruction: direct, interpretative and constructive (Pozo et al., 2006). The less experienced group (less than 5 years) showed a constructive conception. The medium experienced group    (between 5 and 15 years) showed an interpretative conception. Finally, the most experienced group (more than 15 years) showed a direct conception. The conclusions were: first, it seems necessary to develop teaching updating programs for Spanish piano teachers in order to acquire more appropriate and powerful conceptions; second, the results found with the statistical analysis of textual data fit researches using other methodologies; third, the statistical analysis of textual data is useful to infer mental representations or conceptions; this use is innovative, since it has only rarely been used to study subjects’ textual responses.

This study is based on the assumption that teachers maintain conceptions concerning learning and instruction that rely on one of the following representations: direct, interpretative and constructive (according to the taxonomy by Pozo & Scheuer, 1999). With the exception of the constructive theory, which is usually learned by means of formal education, the rest of the conceptions (or implicit theories) are acquired by an incidental way. According to our theoretical point of view, these conceptions are coherent explicative structures (Vosniadou, 1994).  Some of their main characteristics are early development (Wellman, 1990), situational or contextual character (Rodrigo, 1993), embodied nature (Pozo, 2001), roots and resistance to change, and even resistance to explicit academic formation (Strauss and Shilony, 1994). Direct, interpretative and constructive conceptions have increasing degrees of adjustment to learning and each one is based on different ontological, epistemological and conceptual assumptions (Pérez Echeverría et al., 2001). Previous studies affirm that the greater the professional experience is, the less elaborated and adapted to education are the conceptions about teaching and learning. Also, compelling evidence suggests that these conceptions are reflected in the real teaching (Pozo et al., 2006). Therefore, knowing these conceptions is important in order to promote the conceptual change that current Spanish educative reforms are asking for, and to improve the educative practices.

The present research explores the conceptions about learning and instruction that music teachers have. More specifically, this research studies the conceptions about didactics that piano teachers of music conservatoires support (Elementary and Medium Degrees), and it investigates the current relation between these conceptions and the variable years of educational experience. Forty-five qualified piano teachers took part in the study. The information was gathered by open-response questionnaires. We asked them about the following topics: a) the contents and the most important aims that pupils must acquire when learning a pianistic piece; b) the methodological strategies and/or didactics considered more appropriate to promote the above mentioned learnings; c) the best strategies of evaluation to check that learning has been achieved. We applied the method of textual data, or lexicometric method, to the 45 individual textual responses. The SPADT programme (Système Portable d’Analyse des Données Textuelles, 1996) was used. This method has proved to be adequate for analysing oral responses to open questions (Bécue, 1991) and, in particular, to infer children’s or adults’ conceptions about processes of acquisition and transmission of knowledge (Scheuer, de la Cruz & Pozo, 2002). A factorial correspondence analysis was applied to the aggregate lexical table. The modal response procedure was also employed.

We could detect lexical differences among groups of teachers, divided according to their professional experience. The final results showed clear differences between the conceptions of the teachers from the different experimental groups established (less than 5 years; between 5 and 15 years; more than 15 years // 15 teachers per group). The less experienced group showed a constructive conception about contents and aims, methodological didactics and strategies of evaluation (Pozo et al., 2006), focused on the development of mental skills. The medium experienced group showed an interpretative conception and the most experienced group showed a direct conception about learning contents, methodological didactics and strategies of evaluation (Pozo et al., 2006). They both focus on content acquisition, but with different orientations.

Among other conclusions, we think that it seems necessary to design formative programs that help some of these groups of Spanish teachers to specify their conceptions and to contrast them with the proposals that have arisen in the last years, from both the educational investigation and the curriculum. This would be an important step in order to achieve the conceptual change that Spanish educational reforms claim for. On the other hand, we think that the results found with the statistical analysis of textual data fit with studies using other methodological frameworks. We consider that the use of statistical analysis of textual data presented in this work allows a reading substantially different to and also complementary to more qualitative ones. Finally, we think that the psychological use of the statistical analysis of textual data is very appropriate to infer mental representations or conceptions; also, we consider that this use of lexicometric analysis is innovative, since it has only rarely been used to study teacher’s oral texts or to infer subjects’ mental conceptions.

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