Despite the volume of research supporting the use of music learning activities in children’s education and linking such activities with cognitive benefits in other curriculum areas, music is one of the most avoided and least prepared subjects amongst undergraduate primary teachers. Many general primary teacher graduates “when faced with the prospect of teaching music, feel completely overwhelmed and don’t teach it at all” (Temmerman 2006).
Why are we worried about / afraid of / actively not teaching music?
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The literature review outlines the benefits of DOING music. But how do we decide on the particular activities/resources that should be used? What criteria do we use to evaluate the experience of the students given access to these activities/resources? This dilemma is of course too large to investigate thoroughly within this thesis. Accordingly, I have chosen to focus on the use of jam2jam (generative music software) and the evaluation of its impact within a learning environment. Why this program?
Several factors affecting the learning environment are of major interest to me and pertinent to my study…
How can a non-music teacher facilitate music activities?
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The level playing field - equal access
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The interactions between resource, student and teacher
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