Does the Suzuki method outperform other music teaching methods?

Question

The Suzuki method is influenced by the violinist Suzuki's observations of how children learn to speak their mother tongue. Some of the characteristics of the method are

• learning music by ear is emphasized over reading musical notation
• increasing the difficulty in small steps
• regular playing in groups
• retaining and reviewing every piece of music ever learned on a regular basis
• frequent public performance
• discouraging competitive attitudes
• emphasis on baroque music

The motivations behind the techniques seem plausible, and it's easy to find supporting anecdotes. However, are there any studies that actually confirm the efficiency of these techniques compared to other techniques?

Is the Suzuki method "better" than other methods?

Edit: For any plausible definition of "better".

Answer 1

There is a Ph.D. thesis on this topic, written by Marian Newsome Moorhead in 2005, titled "The Suzuki Method: A comparative analysis of the perceptual/cognitive listening development in third grade students trained in the Suzuki, traditional, and modified Suzuki music methods."

Basically, a bunch of students taught in the Suzuki (which emphasizes rote learning over theory) and some other methods were asked to complete specific musical games. Their performance was then analyzed and compared. The Suzuki students did the same or less well overall compared to some of the other groups. The author tentatively suggests that "cognitive scaffolding" (music theory and such as absent in the Suzuki method) is important for early music acquisition, concluding that:

Although nonsignificant when compared to Suzuki and Crossover samples, Traditional students had the highest means on three of the five Games. It is possible that by this age, the note reading training provided for Traditional students for longer lengths of time may give these students an edge on cognitive understanding and its application to music listening. However, it would take additional research to support that possibility.

This generally coincides with research on second-language acquisition (which is in some way similar to learning music). The pragmatic consensus is that theory and practice are both important in acquiring new skills.