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Group music composition towards creative thinking
Author
Teo, Clara Phin-Phin
Supervisor
Lum, Chee Hoo
Abstract
Music composition and improvisation has been one of the driving forces for creative thinking in the schools’ music curriculum. It is seen as a potential avenue to exhibit one’s development of music knowledge as well as an important catalyst to the learning of 21st century competencies. Although the justification for including group music composition rests on these assumptions, there is still little research to date investigating the nature of group music compositional activities in music lessons in Singapore classrooms.
The purpose of this study was to find out the potential issues arising from group music composition activities for secondary two pupils. The Singapore context provided a unique opportunity to observe lower secondary school pupils who had little or no prior experience with music composition within an educational setting. The qualitative methodology used included observations, interviews with teachers and pupils, and analysis of works, which led to the construction of two case studies, two groups each from an Express class and a Normal Technical class.
Analysis of the two case studies revealed the following: 1) pupils often depended on familiar resources and had little exploratory initiative to exploit the material’s potential; 2) the works of the pupils seem to be much affected by group dynamics, social skills; 3) the teacher’s pedagogical practices such as storyline and classroom management influenced the pupils’ thinking processes during the music compositional task; and 4) pupils discovered more about themselves and adapted to enable the groupwork to progress more smoothly. The study concluded that although these pupils were new to creative work in music, most of them were capable of producing many sound ideas through their group discussion. With adequate guidance and relevant and timely feedback from the music teacher, the pupils could be more meaningfully engage in creative tasks, developing creative thinking and critical thinking skills.
The purpose of this study was to find out the potential issues arising from group music composition activities for secondary two pupils. The Singapore context provided a unique opportunity to observe lower secondary school pupils who had little or no prior experience with music composition within an educational setting. The qualitative methodology used included observations, interviews with teachers and pupils, and analysis of works, which led to the construction of two case studies, two groups each from an Express class and a Normal Technical class.
Analysis of the two case studies revealed the following: 1) pupils often depended on familiar resources and had little exploratory initiative to exploit the material’s potential; 2) the works of the pupils seem to be much affected by group dynamics, social skills; 3) the teacher’s pedagogical practices such as storyline and classroom management influenced the pupils’ thinking processes during the music compositional task; and 4) pupils discovered more about themselves and adapted to enable the groupwork to progress more smoothly. The study concluded that although these pupils were new to creative work in music, most of them were capable of producing many sound ideas through their group discussion. With adequate guidance and relevant and timely feedback from the music teacher, the pupils could be more meaningfully engage in creative tasks, developing creative thinking and critical thinking skills.
Date Issued
2013
Call Number
MT40 Teo
Date Submitted
2013