The purpose of this descriptive quantitative research study was to investigate the relationship between instrumental experience and sight-singing proficiency. This research was conducted in two ...phases: a quantitative survey of known high-achieving sight-singers and a comparison of sight-singing proficiency among participants with diverse musical backgrounds. Results indicated that participants with more than one type of previous musical experience might achieve higher sight-singing scores than those with only one type of previous musical experience. Participants with both choral and instrumental experience achieved higher sightsinging scores than participants with only one type of experience. Notably, participants who had taken a music theory course scored higher than participants with any other type of musical background. We discuss implications for future research.
In 2015, the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Education mandated that local Indigenous knowledge, pedagogy, and worldviews be embedded in all K-12 curricula, but most BC music teachers have been ...unable to fulfill this directive because they are unfamiliar with Indigenous cultural practices. We designed this multiple case study, informed by Indigenous Protocols and worldviews, to address this gap of knowledge and understanding, so educators might learn how to enact the new curriculum 'in a good way' (i.e. in a way that aligns with Indigenous peoples' ways of knowing). We used document analysis and surveys to identify music educators and Indigenous community members who together had already been successful in embedding local Indigenous knowledge in music classes. We interviewed 51 music teachers, culture bearers, cultural workers, and students to learn how they had done this, and whether they found that such embedding had contributed to fostering cross-cultural understanding and respect. Participants reported that singing and drumming, taught orally in tandem with related stories, were the most prevalent forms of cultural practice, and that establishing relationships and following local Protocols led to greater cross-cultural understanding and respect.
This paper investigates the relationship between music qualification choice and academic performance in secondary education in England at Key Stage 4 (KS4; usually at ages 15 and 16). We analysed ...data from 2257 pupils at 18 educational settings in a city in the southeast of England. Two regression analyses with clustered errors modelled KS4 music qualification choice and GCSE academic achievement in English, Mathematics and other English Baccalaureate subjects, while controlling for a range of demographic, academic and socio‐economic variables. Choice of music as a subject at KS4 was positively associated with the total volume of KS4 qualifications entered for examination and was also predicted by coming from an affluent neighbourhood. Furthermore, this choice of music at KS4 was associated with greater academic performance on English Baccalaureate subjects above and beyond other significant predictors (gender, language, prior academic achievement, total volume of KS4 qualifications and neighbourhood socio‐economic status; local Cohen's f‐squared = 0.09). These results point to moderate but significant additive effect of studying music at KS4 in relation to performance on core GCSE subjects. We also found that schools with KS4 music qualification choice greater than the national average were higher in overall academic attainment, in the proportion of pupils attending extra‐curricular instrumental lessons, and in our composite measure of school's engagement with a local music education hub. The results are interpreted in light of sociological theories of education in an attempt to better understand the underlying systemic factors affecting youth music engagement.
editor's message Ryan, Charlene
Canadian music educator,
03/2020, Volume:
61, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Topics span a wide range of timely and timeless issues: the transmission of cultural music knowledge; choral education in unusual spaces; community university collaborations; a new philosophy for the ...field; grass-roots curriculum development; music-making and notating (beyond the Western classical model); musical goals enhanced through literary bridges; world musics as critical components of our classes; and the bonding potential of music between parent and child. Whether we are back to school/university/studio or still at home, there is plenty in this edition to get the wheels turning towards advancing our profession and building upon the now-obvious-to-all need for music education in our uncertain world - a beacon of light in these rough seas.
Musical-aesthetic education represents an essential hallmark of schooling due to its substantial contribution to society and culture. As understood here, musical-aesthetic education means to make ...musical-aesthetic situations possible, resulting in musical-aesthetic experiences. In his recently published postdoctoral philosophical thesis from 1930/31 Günther Anders - influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger - comprehends the musical situation as a transformation of the human being into one of his dimensions, that finds reification only in music. Building on this theoretical work the musical-aesthetic situation as a basis for music education processes and its contribution to developments of approaches of musical- aesthetic education at the primary school level will be discussed. By means of guided expert interviews, the meaning, status and practice of music education at the primary school level is examined from the perspective of instructors at the Teachers Colleges and professors at Universities in Upper Austria. It will be shown that aesthetic education should be strengthened as an interdisciplinary tool at primary schools. In order to make musical-aesthetic education possible for all pupils in modern migration societies, new ideas are needed for the aesthetic learning milieu. Furthermore, both the theoretical examination of the topic as well as the empirical results of this paper should raise greater awareness for the inherent worth of musical-aesthetic education.
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