As I did not have a strong musical education throughout primary and high school, my music project aims to provide children who wish to further their music education after primary school the fundamental knowledge they need in order to successfully achieve this. Entering a University degree without the basic knowledge needed proved to be an extremely difficult task and I hope to ensure the children I teach do not have this same experience.
Throughout the musical project, I will be assessing the key areas of music theory that primary school children, which are the target community audience, seem to struggle with and developing my own teaching booklet. This will contain musical exercises and examples that will aid these children in their musical education. This booklet can then be used for any private music lessons I conduct and in the future for the creation of a music education business. Furthermore, I will research and experiment with teaching methods that work best from firsthand experience at teaching primary school children with my job at Cool Kids Music Co. In a broader cultural context, retaining this knowledge for the future allows me to effectively train employees at the possible expansion of a business. Through the combination of a teaching booklet and the successful teaching methods for musical education, I will be able to ensure any future teaching I do, regardless of age, is of the highest quality and ensure that if I begin my own business, I have the basics I require to expand and build upon.
The processes involved in achieving this project include firsthand experience teaching primary school children, which I am guaranteed to achieve as I work for Cool Kids Music Co., and developing an informative yet interesting and engaging teaching booklet. I will need to experiment with proposed effective teaching methods, for example Townsend’s (2011) ‘six components of effective teaching’, and discover the key areas of music theory that primary school children struggle to comprehend and retain.
A possible area of critique would be deciphering one teaching method that will work regardless of the children’s differences. As stated by Townsend (2011), “students and teachers possess infinite combinations of continually changing knowledge, backgrounds, personalities, and abilities.” I believe this will be a difficult task, however, if the personalities of the children can be categorised, the effective teaching method for that personality may become identifiable. Another area of critique would be creating a teaching booklet that is enjoyable. There needs to be a balance between enjoyment and learning and this will be no easy feat. The AMEB music books (2015), although extremely informative, lack colour and interactivity, two components I wish to include in my teaching booklet.
Timeline:
August 27: Decided on the creation of teaching booklet.
August 30: Decided to explore teaching methods.
September 1-4: experiment with teaching methods and explore parts of music theory primary school children find difficult. Discovers ways to make booklet interactive and interesting (accompanying CD, etc).
September 4: Proposal Due – Project hypothesis finalised.
September 7 – 11: experiment with teaching methods and explore parts of music theory primary school children find difficult.
September 12: Begin writing booklet and developing CD.
September 20: Provide private lesson students not associated with my job the booklet and see responses.
September 20-November 2: continue experimenting with teaching methods and music theory struggles and how private lesson students react to my interactive booklet. Continue research and apply any newly discovered teaching methods, maintaining records of this and its outcome.
October 2: Begin essay.
2 November: Reflective Practice Essay Due.
References:
- Townsend, A. S. (2011). Introduction to Effective Music Teaching: Artistry and Attitude. Plymouth, United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
- Australian Music Examinations Board. (2015). Retrieved August 29, 2015, from http://www.ameb.edu.au/shop.html
- Hennessey, S. (1995). Music Seven-Eleven: Developing Primary Teaching Skills. Florence, United States: Routledge.
- Applefield Olson, C. (2011). Should you Immerse Yourself or Should You Chunk? (pp 24) in Teaching Music Volume 18.
- Sanders, J. C. (2001). Teaching methods. Anaesthesia, 56: 799–820.
caitlingaffney 