scholarly journals Music education in the Grade R classroom: How three teachers learned in a participatory action inquiry

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aletta Delport ◽  
Erna Cloete

The contribution of music education to the holistic development of the young learner is uncontested. However, in South Africa, the vast majority of Reception Year (Grade R) teachers do not have the required competences to teach music in ways that optimally enhance the holistic growth of their learners, as this aspect has been largely neglected during their pre-service and in-service training. In this paper, we report on a year-long intervention aimed at enabling three Grade R non-music specialist teachers at one urban township school in the Eastern Cape to create music-based learning opportunities for their learners. We employed a participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) approach to the inquiry, which combines research with development. Our findings indicate that after a series of collaborative interactions, the participants started to explore and tap into their own musical competences. They revisited notions of the self as (ill-)equipped, (un)confident, (in)competent and (in)dependent music teachers, and began to assume autonomy and agency with regard to effective music education in the Grade R classroom. We consequently argue that under-qualified in-service teachers can be enabled to improve their practice through research interventions that stimulate maximum participant involvement, such as PALAR.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-197
Author(s):  
Zhuo Yu ◽  
Bo-Wah Leung

The Ministry of Education of China issued a new document of Music Curriculum Standards in 2011 substituting the old version of 2001. This study aims to investigate how music teachers in China implement and respond to the Curriculum Standards through a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews with voluntary teachers. A total of 2206 music teachers from 15 regions/provinces responded to the survey in 2015. Findings reveal that, after a few years of implementation, most teachers found different constraints in implementing the new curriculum. Trained teachers, younger teachers and experienced teachers are more receptive and capable in implementing the curriculum, while rural schools are still in a disadvantaged situation. Most teachers do not understand the concept of music education as aesthetic education. In-service training is found to be insufficient, especially in rural schools. In sum, the current ‘knowledge-centered curriculum’ might need to be redirected to the directions of society-centered and student-centered in order to make a balance.


2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anri Herbst ◽  
Jacques de Wet ◽  
Susan Rijsdijk

We investigated the state of music education in government primary schools in the Cape Peninsula (Western Cape Province, South Africa) as perceived by the general class teacher. Since the first democratic elections in South Africa (1994), the entire primary and secondary school education system has changed drastically in terms of content, and general class teachers (not music specialist teachers) are now responsible for music education within the Arts and Culture learning area. We aimed to identify and analyze problems that these teachers experience in implementing the music component of the revised curriculum. A structured questionnaire was sent to all primary schools in the Cape Peninsula; the response rate was 51.7%. Findings are discussed and interpreted against the historical background of education in South Africa and relevant music philosophical perspectives. January 27, 2005 September 12, 2005


Author(s):  
Molly A. Weaver

The main purpose of this chapter is to synthesize the literature regarding courses for secondary instruments in the interest of making recommendations for promising practices. The chapter also is intended to “push boundaries from within the system” of music teacher education. That is, it is intended to be a resource for those who prepare preservice music teachers (PMTs) for the realities of P-12 school-based music education and who aspire to instill in these new colleagues a disposition toward change. The chapter is divided into six sections: importance of secondary instrument courses, characteristics and configurations of secondary instrument courses, focus and content of secondary instrument courses, peer teaching activities and field experiences within secondary instrument courses, recommendations for promising practices (including professional development beyond the preservice music education curriculum and an institutional model for secondary instrument courses), and future considerations.


Author(s):  
Michael Raiber

The impact of teacher dispositions on the professional development of preservice music teachers (PMTs) has been substantiated. This chapter describes an approach to dispositional development within the structure of an introduction to music education course. A teacher concerns model is used to organize this systematic approach through three developmental stages that include self-concerns, teaching task concerns, and student learning concerns. A series of 11 critical questions are presented for use in guiding PMTs’ dispositional development through these developmental stages. Activities to engage PMTs in the exploration of each of these questions are detailed for use by music teacher educators desiring to engage PMTs in dispositional development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. bmjoq-2018-000347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilsa Louisa Haeusler ◽  
Felicity Knights ◽  
Vishaal George ◽  
Andy Parrish

This quality improvement (QI) work was carried out in Cecilia Makiwane Hospital (CMH), a regional public hospital in the Eastern Cape, South Africa (SA). SA has among the highest incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in the world and this is a leading cause of death in SA. Nosocomial infection is an important source of TB transmission. Adherence to TB infection prevention control (IPC) measures in the medical inpatient department was suboptimal at CMH. The overall aim of this QI project was to make sustainable improvements in TB IPC. A multidisciplinary team was formed to undertake a root cause analysis and develop a strategy for change. The main barriers to adherence to IPC measures were limited knowledge of IPC methods and stigma associated with TB. Specifically, the project aimed to increase the number of: ‘airborne precaution’ signs placed above patients’ beds, patients correctly isolated and patients wearing surgical face masks. Four Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles were used. The strategy for change involved education and awareness-raising in different formats, including formal in-service training delivered to nurses and doctors, a hospital-wide TB awareness week with engaging activities and competitions, and a World TB Day provincial solidarity march. Data on adherence to the three IPC measures were collected over an 8-month period. Pre-intervention (October 2016), a mean of 2% of patients wore face masks, 22% were correctly isolated and 12% had an airborne precaution sign. Post-intervention (May 2017), the compliance improved to 17%, 50% and 25%, respectively. There was a large variation in compliance to each measure. Improvement was greatest in the number of patients correctly isolated. We learnt it is important to work with, not in parallel to, existing teams or structures during QI work. On-the-ground training of nurses and clinicians should be undertaken alongside engagement of senior staff members and managers. This improves the chance of change being adopted into hospital policy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 025576142110059
Author(s):  
Alican Gülle ◽  
Cenk Akay ◽  
Nezaket Bilge Uzun

Kodály-inspired pedagogy enables students to participate effectively in a music course by engaging in active musical interactions with folk songs and melodies. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of Kodály-inspired pedagogy on recorder performance and attitudes toward music of secondary school students. A quasi-experimental design was used in the study. The experimental group was taught using Kodály-inspired pedagogy and the control group using the general music teaching methods for 9 weeks. A two-way mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) and content analysis were used to analyze the data. A Recorder Performance Grading Key, music course attitude scale, and open-ended questions were used to collect the data. Consequently, the findings indicated that Kodály-inspired pedagogy had a significant effect on the students’ recorder performance but the researchers could not find a significant effect on students’ attitudes toward the music course. Moreover, students in the experimental group reported improvement in their recorder performance and attitudes toward music education. The researchers recommended including information about the implementation of Kodály-inspired pedagogy in music teacher textbooks, providing in-service training for teachers to enable them to use Kodály-inspired pedagogy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1321103X2097480
Author(s):  
Melissa Bremmer ◽  
Carolien Hermans ◽  
Vincent Lamers

This multiple-case-studies research explored a multimodal approach to teaching music to pupils (from 4 to 18 years old) with severe or multiple disabilities. By combining music with, for example, tactile stimulation, movement, or visuals, meaning-making processes in music of these pupils was stimulated, helping them to understand the internal structures and expressive qualities of music. Three music teachers and a social worker participated in this study. Individual and collective video reflections and microanalysis were applied to gather data about their multimodal teaching practice. The data were analyzed through Schmid’s framework (2015) of “multimodal dimensions of children’s music experiences,” developed for general music education. This framework consists of four dimensions: narrativity, sociality, materiality, and embodiment. Based on the findings, Schmid’s framework could be revised for special education, thus providing music teachers with a tool for designing multimodal music lessons for pupils with severe or multiple disabilities.


Author(s):  
Hui Hong ◽  
Weisheng Luo

Wang Guowei, a famous scholar and thinker in our country, thinks that “aesthetic education harmonizes people's feelings in the process of emotional music education, so as to achieve the perfect domain”, “aesthetic education is also emotional education”. Therefore, in the process of music education, emotional education plays an important role in middle school music teaching, and it is also the highest and most beautiful realm in the process of music education in music teaching. Music teachers should be good at using appropriate teaching methods and means. In the process of music education, they should lead students into the emotional world, knock on their hearts with the beauty of music, and touch their heartstrings. Only when students' hearts are close to music in the process of music education, can they truly experience the charm of music and realize the true meaning of music in the process of music education. Only in this way can music classes be effectively implemented The purpose of classroom emotion teaching.


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