Eugene I. Dairianathan

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND In Singapore, the Ministry of Education (MOE) emphasises the importance of developing 21CC through Co-Curricular Activities (CCA). For example, the Handbook for the Co-Curriculum states that there ought to be an “intentional design” of CCA activities such that they create “authentic opportunities” for students to “practise” the 21CC (MOE, 2014, p. 16). This includes the development of 21CC through music CCAs, such as the school band.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS Sentiments on the ground, however, suggest that many band directors see the development of these competencies already implicit in current practice. Furthermore, there is no research in Singapore that has empirically examined the assumption that 21CC can be developed through music CCAs. There appears a need for empirical data to determine if and how 21CC are being developed by school band programmes as currently practised. This would also render any form of formal intervention more organic, persuasive, and authentic.
PURPOSE OF STUDY The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the development of 21CC through the school band; it aims to render explicit what might already be implicit in current practice. To achieve these goals, two high performing school bands (one Primary and one Secondary) were examined over a period of one year.

Improvisation is a free elective course offered by the Music Department to students from all disciplines at the main University. Our earlier studies on the non music-specialist students enabled through improvisation have articulated in/formal processes in both reflexive and reflective thinking processes (Dairianathan & Stead 2006, 2008) which we argue are based on the concept of askesis, notably meletē and gymnasia, in the Stoic tradition (Foucault, 1988). Although improvising is based on prior experience, an area not yet critically examined is the way in which that experience is brought together with the immediate requirement to improvise in the moment. In this paper, we study one group of participants whose discussions brought about a consensus that, in their final performance: we would improvise on-the-spot on the performance day itself. In so doing, this group intentionally gave themselves minimal prior rehearsal; what these participants refer to as the in-the-moment (ITM) factor. This study is reliant on an analysis of participants’ performances and excerpts from their journal reflections which critically examine what it means for learners to be engaged in the moment when improvising.