Attitudes of high school students towards learning music

Love ensemble, hate theory
Jennifer Rosevear
 

Adolescents tend to be very passionate about music, in that they invest a lot of time and often money, particularly on listening to music and they often report that listening to music is a favourite past-time (Boal-Palheiros & Hargreaves, 2001:103).  Largely due to the recent developments in technology there is unprecedented diversity of access to music in everyday life. According to MacDonald, Miell & Hargreaves (2002:49), such access means that “music can increasingly be used as a means by which we formulate and express our individual identities”.  They suggest that music in identities “focuses on how we use music as a means or resource for developing other aspects of our individual identities” (MacDonald et al, 2002:50).  This suggestion perhaps sheds some light on the strength of adolescents’ interest in music, particularly the way in which they view it as ‘our music’.

Read the full story

The popularity of music as a school subject, however, does not share the same level of passionate support (Boal-Palheiros & Hargreaves, 2001:116), and the percentage, say, of the Year 12 cohort studying music is very small. Various studies have highlighted the apparent mismatch between the popularity of music at school and music outside of school (Ross, 1995; Zillman & Gan, 1997). This raises the question of the relevance of music study for adolescents, and whether music educators can capitalize on adolescents’ inherent interest in music in a constructive way.

 

What Is Happening to Music in NSW Government Primary School Classrooms?
Julia Jones
This is a literature survey that reveals the "dire straits" of primary school music education in NSW government schools. It probably is indicative of the situation in most other government school systems in Australia, although of course there will be differences of detail.
Briefly, the survey refers to studies that between them show these weaknesses.
  • Primary school music education is the responsibility of generalist primary school classroom teachers whose pre-service tertiary training in music education is totally inadequate.
  • The inadequacy of training not only results in a lack of knowledge of the subject and how to teach it, but also in a lack of confidence.
  • Because of the lack of confidence, many teachers wish to avoid teaching music, and because music is not given priority by the system or by many school principals, they can avoid teaching it.
  • There has been agreement among education specialists that if music is to be taught by generalist classroom teachers, they should be supported by consultant music specialists.
  • However, the few specialists now available to classroom teachers are required to give support in all the five art forms specified in the curriculum. It cannot be expected that all will be expert in music.
  • Music is now part of a "creative arts" curriculum in which available classroom time is split between five art forms, ensuring that there is inadequate instruction in any of them.
  • The inadequacy of provision is greater in rural and regional areas, and increases in higher primary grades.
There is much other important information in this paper. To read the paper, click here.

How much music education is there in schools? 
Associate Professor Robin Stevens has completed a research project for the Music Council of Australia into trends in the provision of music education in schools. It looked at public, Catholic and independent school systems in all eight states and territories.

Among the findings of the study:

  • On practically all parameters it was not possible to show trends because the data is not collected. System head offices do not have basic information about the provision of music education in their schools.
     
  • While research has shown the importance of acquiring musical skills in the early years, primary school music education is generally inadequate. In the public schools, the responsibility is given to classroom teachers, but their pre-service training in music is only around 24 hours over their entire tertiary course. (This is to the extent that figures are known.) Anecdotal evidence says that this is not sufficient to give many classroom teachers any confidence that they can teach music.

  • The only area in which trends could be shown for the whole country is in the number of students sitting for music as a Year 12 graduation subject. There has been about a 50% increase over the last ten years. While this is gratifying, it does not of itself give any indication of the general access to music education in secondary schools.

  • Only in one state, NSW, is music mandated as a subject in secondary schools. Students there must receive a total of 100 hours of music instruction in Years 7 and 8. In other states, music is at best an elective.

To read the Stevens Report, click on http://www.mca.org.au/StevensReport.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

A Postcard from Victoria: Can we really call this music education?

But do I spot a glimmer of hope?

 “If we are to prepare successfully for the twenty-first century we will have to do more than just improve literacy and numeracy skills, We need a broad, flexible and motivating education that recognises the different talents of all children and delivers excellence for everyone.” (All Our Futures: p. 6)

I find it very curious that educational philosophies can chop and change so rapidly in the government arena. In Victoria, as governments have come and gone, in the past six years curriculum priorities have included Languages other than English (LOTE), technology, physical education and sport. Today the priority is literacy and numeracy. This appears to negate the contribution of other curriculum areas to the development of literacy and numeracy. It is also devaluing the part music and the arts play in the total development of the child. With so many demands made on the school’s resources, music has fared very badly in school’s allocation of funds from the Global Budget. This is despite the plethora of research that clearly shows the enormous benefits of music education to the child. It is, however, encouraging to see this research being embraced in the USA where National Standards are being developed, and in the UK where the Department for Education and Employment has developed an action plan supported by funding to reinstate music into the national curriculum and greatly enhance its provision nationwide.

But then again, perhaps it is our fault that we are ignored. (I mean here musicians and music educators). What are we really doing about the poor state of music education in our schools? Tom Woods (Music Forum 6/3) drew our attention to the "devastating" state of music education in NSW government schools. He also argues that professional musicians are not a product of a state education system but a product of private instrumental teachers. Things are not so different in Victoria and one can only speculate on the potential waste of talent (the future Simon Rattles) which will never be developed due to the lack of resources in many of our government schools.

“Even as a middle-class kid, I could not have become a musician without the huge, varied infrastructure of music services provided by Liverpool in the 1960s.” Simon Rattle (All Our Futures, p.142)

I believe we need to ask ourselves three important questions. First, do we really have a clear vision and an action plan for the provision and improvement of music education for the 21st century? Second, have we any real agreement on what music education in schools should consist of in the 21st century? And third, do we have well-articulated arguments we can put to education policy makers and school principals in support for an increase in the provision of music education and an increase in funding for music education in schools? Regrettably I believe we have to say no to these three questions. Consequently cuts to music programs are still forthcoming in government secondary schools and the quality of most programs remains limited, of relatively poor quality, and frequently just token. Fortunately Victoria still does have a small number of ‘light house’ music programs including those left over from the times of the formation of Music Placement schools in the late 1970s and 1980s. Unfortunately these schools can be counted on the fingers of both hands.

For the full story, go to http://www.mca.org.au/m15227.htm