Problems with school music in Finland

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikko Anttila
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Child And Adolescent ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Music Making ◽  
School Music ◽  
Negative Effect

Almost every Finnish child and adolescent takes an interest in music in some form. However, many young people feel dissatisfaction with what music education institutions provide and fail to find them motivating. According to the results of a series of empirical studies, school music education can have a negative effect on many pupils and undermine their musical self-esteem. At the music education institutions where this research was undertaken, music was narrowly defined and there was an absence of contemporary music cultures. Forms of music making were limited and active music listening absent from lessons. Assessment too was a problem with many pupils feeling that the evaluation of their work lacked legitimacy and fairness.

Measuring pre-service music teachers’ creative identities: a cross-cultural comparison of the United States and Singapore

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (02) ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Clint Randles ◽  
Leonard Tan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Creative Identity ◽  
Service Music

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine and compare the creative musical identities of pre-service music education students in the United States and Singapore. The Creative Identity in Music (CIM) measure was utilized with both US and Singapore pre-service music teacher populations (n = 274). Items of the CIM relate to music-making activities often associated with creativity in music education in the literature, including composition, improvisation and popular music performance. Results suggest, similar to findings of previous research, that while both populations are similar in their degree of creative music-making self-efficacy and are similarly willing to allow for creativity in the classroom, Singaporean pre-service music teachers value the areas of creative identity and the use of popular music listening/performing within the learning environment to a significantly greater extent (p < 0.0001) than their US counterparts.

scholarly journals Some thoughts on curriculum in music education

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
MARTIN FAUTLEY ◽  
ALISON DAUBNEY
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Search Engine ◽  
Music Curriculum ◽  
Educational Settings ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Selective Sampling ◽  
School Based ◽  
School Music ◽  
Good Learning

Curriculum is currently a big issue in England. What a school-based music curriculum should entail, what sorts of things should be taught and learned, and what makes for good learning experiences are all under consideration. One of the issues that crops up in England, and possibly in other jurisdictions too, when these sorts of discussions take place, involves considerations of what sorts of music children and young people should be involved with, what should they learn, and what is important for schools to be teaching. This immediately places discussions beyond what might be termed the strictly musical, and into the area of values. What music is valued by education systems, and what music should be foregrounded in educational settings become a significant arena of contention. This is especially the case when politicians become involved, as they will often have fixed or politically-motivated views about what they think should be taught and learned in school music classes. As ever, the pages of the BJME provide some interesting views on this matter, and so it is worth a brief trawl through the archives. The BJME home page search engine on the website produces 168 results for the term “curriculum”, so clearly this will be a highly selective sampling from these rich pickings in this editorial.

scholarly journals COOL Music: a ‘bottom-up’ music intervention for hard-to-reach young people in Scotland

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Millar ◽  
Artur Steiner ◽  
Francesca Caló ◽  
Simon Teasdale
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Music Intervention ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Participatory Music

AbstractCommunity Orientated and Opportunity Learning (COOL) Music was a 12-month collaborative project between researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University and practitioners at the Edinburgh-based social enterprise Heavy Sound. The project began in October 2017 and involved 16 sessions of participatory music making with 32 ‘hard-to-reach’ young people (aged 12–17) aimed at increasing confidence and self-esteem and improving social skills. Using COOL Music as a case study, this article explores some of the challenges faced by community-based arts organisations tasked with delivering such interventions, contrasting COOL Music’s small-scale, targeted, community-based approach with prevailing top-down music interventions in Scotland. We argue that such programmes are particularly suitable in engaging those at the margins of society, reaching them on their own terms through music that resonates with their own lived experience. However, we acknowledge the short-term and transitory nature of such projects may prove problematic for some hard-to-reach groups who require more stability in their lives and may also lead to staff fatigue and burnout. We call for further research in these areas, and greater policy attention to be paid to the sustainability of such projects.

The Contemporary Composer in the Classroom

1986 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Owens
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
Modern Music ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Current State ◽  
School Music

This article is a revised version of a talk given by the author before an international symposium on music education in Hortos, Greece, in 1985. It considers the current state of modern music, suggesting that there have been some important changes in direction since the avant-garde styles of the 1950s and 1960s; and it reflects on some of the implications of these changes for secondary-school music teaching.Some proposals are made for factors likely to facilitate the success of contemporary music which children hear or perform. In the original talk these points were illustrated with recorded examples, indicated here by numbers in the text. The role of children as contemporary composers themselves is also discussed in terms of the method and motivation by which creative work may be encouraged.The educational writers on whom the author bases much of his argument are clearly acknowledged throughout the text. Otherwise, opinions derive from experience of teaching and writing music for children in England and in France.

Young people's music in and out of school

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lamont ◽  
David J. Hargreaves ◽  
Nigel A. Marshall ◽  
Mark Tarrant
Keyword(s):  
Good Practice ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Head Teachers ◽  
Teacher Interviews ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Musical Activity ◽  
School Music ◽  
Out Of School

This article examines the perceived and documented problems of school music, particularly at secondary level, through a study of young people's music in and out of school. Four issues are explored: teachers' approaches to music in school; pupils' levels of engagement in musical activities in and out of school; pupils' attitudes to music in and out of school; and pupils' aspirations in music. A Pupils' Music Questionnaire was administered to 1,479 pupils in Years 4, 6, 7 and 9 (aged 8–14 years) from 21 schools in England; Teacher Interviews were conducted with 42 head teachers and teachers responsible for music in all these schools; and follow-up Music Focus Groups were conducted with 134 pupils from the original sample. In contrast to earlier research, both teachers and pupils across the sample demonstrated very positive attitudes towards music, whilst also acknowledging constraints on good practice. Music listening formed an important part of pupils' lives, but music making was more prominent than suggested by previous research. Commitment to musical activity seemed more robust out of school than in school, and it is suggested that involvement in musical activity may be transitory for some children and adolescents.

Music Education Assessment and Social Justice

2015 ◽  
pp. 512-524
Author(s):  
Martin Fautley
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
World Music ◽  
Western World ◽  
Music Curriculum ◽  
Education Assessment ◽  
Music Making ◽  
School Music ◽  
Music Classrooms

This chapter considers the role that assessment, particularly formative assessment, has to play with regard to social justice purposes in education. It disentangles the notion of assessment from that of testing. Valorization of music is highly significant, as what is valued tends to be what is assessed. This can result in the disenfranchising of world music, pop, rock, and jazz on a daily basis in music classrooms all over the Western world; so this chapter problematizes the content of the music curriculum, too, asking whether that which can be labeled “school music” has any relevance beyond itself. To counter these problems, this chapter suggests the use of feed forward, which takes place during music making, privileging process over product. It suggests that the principal purpose of assessment should be to improve learning in music, not to simply provide data for systemic purposes.

Equity and Access in Out-of-School Music Making

2017 ◽  
pp. 502-510
Author(s):  
Kylie Peppler
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Equity And Access ◽  
Music Making ◽  
School Music ◽  
Pathways Model ◽  
Recording Studios ◽  
Out Of School

This chapter focuses on the importance of community to both music education and the ways that youth shape their ideas, interests, and identities in music. Musical learning is rarely, if ever, about a learner operating a new musical technology-based tool in isolation. Music is inherently social, and these influences have a great impact upon the development of musical identities. This chapter explores the ways that out-of-school spaces like those in the Computer Clubhouse Network, YOUmedia, and Musical Futures support social music learning by providing private recording studios that allow youth to assume increasingly public roles as musicians, performers, and producers. The chapter also describes how mixing formal, nonformal, and informal learning spaces helps to develop a youth’s musical maturity through what is known as the “progression pathways model.”

The Promise and Pitfalls of the Digital Studio

2017 ◽  
pp. 232-240
Author(s):  
Ethan Hein
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Group Activity ◽  
Educational Settings ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
School Music ◽  
Imaginative Play

Whether or not we make the best use of technology in the music classroom, young people will continue to find unexpected uses for it elsewhere. There is no historical precedent for the informal learning possibilities afforded by inexpensive and ubiquitous computers. Are young music learners best left to their own devices, literally and figuratively? Or can we structure a classroom around these devices, combining independent play with guided group activity? Will formal educational settings always compromise or even negate young people’s autonomy and independence? Perhaps if we think of the music room as a maker space rather than a classroom, we can admit some of the imaginative play and authentic expressiveness that students find outside school. Music education will happen wherever people gather together, using whatever materials are at hand. A school is necessarily an ad hoc society; ideally, it can be a genuine artistic community as well.

scholarly journals Teaching creative music in El Sistema and after-school music contexts

2021 ◽  
pp. 025576142199082
Author(s):  
Sean Corcoran
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
After School ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Creative Music ◽  
School Music ◽  
El Sistema ◽  
Teachers Perspectives ◽  
Creative Music Making

El Sistema music programmes have blossomed over the past decade, with the aim of fostering social development through intensive orchestral music instruction. Many scholars agree that creative music making can facilitate student agency development, increase a sense of belonging and promote creative expression by allowing students to bring their perspectives to the learning context. With these benefits apparent, it seems rational that El Sistema should incorporate creative music making into its curriculum. To build understanding of how creative music approaches function in some programmes, I used a multiple qualitative case study to examine eight teachers’ perspectives of creative music making within El Sistema and after-school music programmes in Canada and the United Kingdom. Findings revealed that teachers conceptualized creative music making as activities that develop agency through collaborative music creation, that have the benefit of creating a sense of belonging and that give students the opportunity to contribute to their community. Successful nurturing of creative music making seems to rely on connecting students to their wider community, which is achieved in part through incorporating students’ own musical tastes. Teachers’ experiences with creative music making in their own music education played a crucial role in preparing them to teach creative music.

scholarly journals “It all makes us feel together”: Young people’s experiences of virtual group music-making during the Covid-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maruša Levstek ◽  
Rubie M. Barnby ◽  
Katherine L. Pocock ◽  
Robin Banerjee
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Basic Psychological Needs ◽  
Special Educational Needs ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Music Production ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Virtual Group ◽  
The Uk

We know little about the psychological experiences of children and young people who have participated in virtual group music-making during the Covid-19 pandemic. Adopting a mixed-methods design, we worked across three music education hubs in the UK, with a total 13 virtual music groups. These included a range of mainstream ensembles, inclusive ensembles targeting young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and inclusive music production spaces, targeting young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Reported progress in intra- and inter-personal psychological outcomes was investigated using quantitative and qualitative staff session reports, which were collected since before the pandemic (n for in-person sessions = 87, n for virtual sessions = 68), and surveys distributed to tutors, young people, and their parents during the first and second UK national lockdowns (n for qualitative responses = 240, n for quantitative responses = 96). Satisfaction of three basic psychological needs of self-determination theory and their relation to joint music-making in virtual spaces was also observed in real time by the researchers performing quantitative checklist observations on 16 separate occasions. Findings indicated that virtual music groups represented a meaningful psychological resource for the participating children and young people, especially considering the lack of opportunities offered by their schools and other extra-curricular activities. Through their participation with virtual group music-making activities, young people used music as a tool for self-expression and emotion management, restored lost musical identities and confidence, and preserved treasured social connections. Virtual alternatives to group music-making appear to indirectly nurture the sense of belongingness, mediated by supportive staff behaviours, but their direct connection, which has been widely reported for in-person group music-making experiences, has not been observed in virtual music groups.

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