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EMPOWERING STUDENT VOICE: Developing the 21st Century Learner Musically
Edited by LEONARD TAN & LEONG SIEW CHUN
Published by Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the Arts (STAR) 2 Malan Road
Chapter 1 Impact of the Informal Learning Approach on Students’ Self-Directedness and Music Learning in the Singapore Primary School Music Classroom 1
Chang Hui Miin
Jiemin Primary School
Chapter 2 Developing 21CC through the General Music Programme: An Exploratory Study of Collaborative Music Making through an Orff-Inspired Teaching Approach 21
Sharon Grace Tan Boon Fong, Cheah Swee Ee, Yazid Bin Adali and Wong Chee Kuen
Princess Elizabeth Primary School
Chapter 3 A Study on Student Motivation in a Music Video
Production Project Facilitated through an Informal Learning Approach Supported by Information and Communications Technology 39
Sim Kok Heng
Edgefield Secondary School
Chapter 4 What Happens Next? – Investigating Cumulative Creative Strategies in Developing Critical Thinkers with Grit 67
Theodora Huang Xinyi
Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts would like to express our appreciation to our following partners who have supported us in our journey of teachers’ reflective practice to improve classroom practice:
Arts and Heritage Division, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY)
National Arts Council (NAC)
Research Consultant Associate Professor Lum Chee Hoo, National Institute of Education, Singapore
Research Mentor Master Teacher (Music), Chua Siew Ling, Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts
Principals, staff, and students of:
• Edgefield Secondary School
• Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary)
• Jiemin Primary School
• Princess Elizabeth Primary School
STAR Editorial Team Ms Leong Siew Chun, Senior Academy Officer, Music and Ms Adeline Tan, Senior Academy Officer, Music
APRF is supported by Arts & Culture Strategic Review (ACSR).
ARTS PEDAGOGICAL RESEARCH FUND
The 2017 publication marks the third after earlier two volumes of music teacher research publications, made possible by the Arts Pedagogical Research Fund (APRF), supported by the collaboration between the Ministry of Education (MOE), and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY). Since 2013, 24 Music research projects had been completed; giving insight into current Singapore teaching practice for music classroom. The compendium comprising three volumes published selected research projects:
• Essays in Music Pedagogical Research: Student-Centricity in the 21st Century (2014);
• A Reflective Lens: Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice (2016); and
• Empowering Student Voice: Developing the 21st Century Learner Musically (2017).
STAR is committed to support art and music teachers in the understanding of student-centred arts pedagogies and assessment practices. Teacher-researchers undergo a year-long professional development programme deepening their own pedagogical understanding through research. Through the various research stages, teachers engage in reflective dialogues with a supporting community comprising STAR officers, mentor research consultants, and fellow teacher-researchers. The understanding is nurtured over time, through a spirit of inquiry taking a reflexive critical stance towards one’s own teaching practice intent and improving what can be done better for the student’s learning outcomes.
Ways of seeing and knowing connect our meaning making, bridging what we did not know before to new frames of understanding. These refreshing research projects belie a natural curiosity to test out our long held assumptions and to reframe them in new ways that bring new meaning. Just as much as we want our own students to have the best learning from our mentoring and coaching, our very own pedagogies need to connect strong disciplinary concepts in deep meaningful ways and bring about unusual new combinations to teaching and learning.
This re-imagination of our own teaching practice requires a closer look at our teaching practices, a deep reflection to re-engage our eyes, ears and heart. Congratulations to the teacher-researchers in your journey of discovery and expression. This new body of insightful work into our music classrooms brings the joy of learning into the classroom; to our students when we leap into unchartered territories of reframing old assumptions, create new meaning, courageously step up and learn on the go. Indeed, we look forward to these shared ideas of teaching and learning as we create new environments of learning that support experimentation, discovery and deep sense making.
Rebecca Chew Academy Principal Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts
What should a 21st century music classroom look like? How might music education develop 21st century competencies (21CC) in our students? In what ways can the student’s voice be empowered through the music classroom? These important and timely questions lie at the heart of the quartet of papers selected for publication in this issue.
Chang Hui Miin leads off by examining the impact of the Informal Learning approach on students’ self-directedness and music learning in a primary school. Using a qualitative approach, Chang found incorporating collaborative learning yielded positive gains for students’ self-directedness - an important 21CC.
The relationship between collaborative learning and 21CC was further explored by Sharon Tan and her team in another primary school. Through a mixed methods approach, the team found significant gains in students’ 21CC after implementing an Orff-inspired collaborative teaching approach.
With the rising ubiquity of technology in music classrooms, Sim Kok Heng’s study on student motivation facilitated through the Informal Learning approach supported by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) deepens understanding to earlier teacher-research projects in our Singapore classrooms. Among his findings, Sim noted that his secondary school students tended to be more intrinsically motivated when their tasks were novel and meaningful, supported through peer critique.
Theodora Huang concludes this four-movement publication with her study on the development of grit through a student-centric and cumulative approach to teaching musical creation and improvisation in a secondary school. Her study further affirms the value of studentcentricity in the music classroom and its impact in developing critical thinkers with grit.
Taken in toto, this collection of research papers affirms our music teachers’ commitment to empowering students’ voices and developing the 21st century learner musically.
Co-editors
Leonard Tan, National Institute of Education
Leong Siew Chun, Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts
Impact of the Informal Learning Approach on Students’ Self-Directedness and Music Learning in the Singapore Primary School Music Classroom
Abstract
This qualitative research was carried out in a Singapore primary school. It studied the impact of the informal learning approach on students’ selfdirectedness, a 21st century competency, and their musical learning. This study was carried out in six 30-minute lessons involving a class of 41 high-ability Primary 6 students. The results showed that the informal learning approach which involved much collaborative learning improved students’ self-directedness as they experienced a greater sense of ownership. The findings also revealed that the success of the informal learning approach depends on the cohesiveness of the group. In all, the study found that the informal learning approach facilitates differentiated learning in a classroom and enhances students’ learning of musical skills.
Acquiring pedagogical knowledge and teaching approaches to music education is a personal journey. Through interactions with students in music classes, I noticed the interest students have in popular music evidenced by their familiarity with the latest songs and the ability to sing these songs from memory during informal situations such as singing along the corridors and at common spaces during recess or after school. My initial observation was reinforced by the fact that more students volunteered to sing popular songs over classical items at performance platforms such as ‘Five Minutes of Fame’. A study on the musical preferences of young students in Singapore (Teo, 2005) showed
Chang Hui Miin, Jiemin Primary School
that students tend to prefer popular music over classical and nonWestern music. In my estimation, up to 95% of students in this school listen to popular music, thus I am of the opinion that the music curriculum should give consideration to students’ musical interest and social context. Lum and Dairianathan (2013) stressed the importance of including the child’s musical cultures when planning the curriculum:
‘If education involving children is driven by a need to make music lessons meaningful, interesting and engaging for them, then we have to take cognizance of musical cultures expressed to and by children as a major imperative. The right of every early learner’s musical beginning is to celebrate the diversity and variety of all that is before them’ (p. 280).
Pioneered by Lucy Green, the informal learning approach endeavoured to make music lessons engaging and relevant to students by building upon young people’s musical passions (D’Amore, A., 2009, p. 9) by allowing students to learn music they like and identify with, which is often popular music. Empowering students with autonomy in their song choice, instruments, pace of learning, means of learning and teammates gives students ownership over their learning (Folkestad, 2006, p. 138, cited in Ho & Chua, 2012). Thus, the literature shows that the informal learning approach facilitates the development of instrumental and vocal skills among students and increases student initiative and ownership (D’Amore, A., 2009, p. 131).
The outcomes of the informal learning pedagogy also run parallel to the Desired Outcomes of Education (DOE) of the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore, specifically nurturing self-directed learners; one ‘who takes responsibility for his own learning, who questions, reflects and perseveres in the pursuit of learning’ (MOE, 2009).
Taking into consideration the students’ musical interests, the school’s aesthetics department decided to introduce informal learning into its Primary 6 music curriculum and study its impact on their students’ development of 21st century competencies and musical learning.
Research Purpose
The purpose of this project is to study how the informal learning approach in music teaching impacts students’ self-directedness and music learning in the context of a primary school music classroom in Singapore. The research questions are as follows:
1. Do the attributes of responsibility, reflection and perseverance in learning emerge in the informal learning classroom setting?
2. Is there acquisition of musical knowledge and development of musical skills through informal learning in music?
Literature Review
Comparison of Formal and Informal Learning
The literature review covered two key areas: the principles of the informal learning model and its impact on self-directed learning and acquisition of musical knowledge and skills. Understanding these key issues from various perspectives has helped to determine the methodology for this study.
Formal learning is hierarchical and sequentially structured (Coombs, Prosser, & Ahmed, 1973). It tends to be carried out by a teacher who organises and leads the students towards the learning activity (Folkestad, 2006, p. 141). In contrast, the informal learning model as propounded by Green (2008) is based on five key principles:
1. Learning starts with music that the learners choose for themselves.
2. Learning takes place aurally by copying recordings rather than by notation.
3. Learning happens alongside friends instead of through continuous adult guidance.
4. Learning is non-linear and seemingly unstructured.
5. Learning integrates listening, performing, improvising and composing skills.
It involves the acquiring of knowledge from family, neighbours, the marketplace, the library and the mass media (Coombs et al., 1973, p. 60). It is a haphazard process and involves learning through taking part in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practising, by composing or by dancing (Small, 1998).
Green and Walmsley (2006/2009) provided a comparison of the two approaches:
Table 1: Comparison of formal and informal learning in music
Informal
Learning music which is personally chosen, familiar and which the learners enjoy and strongly identify with
Learning by listening to recordings and copying them by ear
Learning alongside friends through talking about music, peer assessment, listening, watching and imitating each other, usually without adult supervision
Assimilating skills and knowledge in personal, often haphazard ways according to musical preferences, starting with ‘whole’, ‘real-world’ pieces of music
Maintaining a close integration of listening, performing, improvising and composing throughout the learning process
Source: Green and Walmsley (2006/2009).
Impact of Informal Learning on Self-Directed Learning
Being introduced to music which is often new and unfamiliar, normally chosen by a teacher
Learning through notation or other written or verbal instructions
Learning through expert instruction and receiving adult supervision
Following a progression from simple to complex, often involving specially composed music, a curriculum or a graded syllabus
Gradually specialising in and differentiating between listening, performing, improvising and composing skills; often tending to emphasise the reproductive more than the creative skills
The impact of the informal learning approach showed that students were engaged and independent as they worked with the help of their peers rather than that of the teacher’s (Hallam, Creech, & McQueen, 2011). Their self-learning was effective as it resulted in higher levels of musical attainment and good musical performances. In essence, students seemed to be self-directing their learning rather than depending on the teacher’s help in lessons due to the informal learning approach.
Brockett & Hiemstra (1991) described two different aspects of selfdirected learning. The first is learner-centered and focused on learner characteristics and was defined as ‘the willingness of individuals to take control that determines any potential for self-direction’ (Brockett & Hiemstra, 1991, p. 26). The second is external to the
Methodology
individual and is ‘an instructional process centering on such activities as assessing needs, securing learning resources, implementing learning activities and evaluating learning’ (Brockett & Hiemstra, 1991, p. 28). Brookfield (2009) defined self-directed learning as ‘learning in which the conceptualization, design, conduct and evaluation of a learning project are directed by the learner’.
The above definitions of self-directed learning align with the definition of a self-directed learner; one of the DOE of the MOE, Singapore. A self-directed learner, according to MOE (2009) is one who ‘takes responsibility for his own learning, who questions, reflects and perseveres in the pursuit of learning.’
From the above, we may see that informal learning, which empowers students to take ownership of their learning with teachers as facilitators, cultivates learners to take responsibility for their own learning. By its principles of having students choose their own music, assimilating skills and knowledge in personal ways and resulting in many cycles of performing, improvising and composing, it nurtures and cultivates habits of the mind to question, reflect and persevere in the pursuit of mastery in learning. Besides the impact on self-directedness, research by Hallam, Creech, Sandford, Rinta, and Shave (2008) showed that 80.4% of students indicated that they had learnt at least one musical instrument and 59.9% reported that they had become better musicians as a result of the activities carried out in Musical Futures.
This case study was conducted in a Singapore primary school music classroom. I employed the qualitative method as I wanted to garner deep and rich insights on the informal learning approach. The study was carried out over six sessions between March and May 2015. Each lesson lasted 30 minutes and was part of the music curriculum of Primary 6 students.
Selection of Participants
While all Primary 6 classes enjoyed the same informal learning lesson, a high-ability class was purposefully chosen for this study as this was the class that the teacher-researcher was teaching. The chosen class comprised 41 students with 17 girls and 24 boys. Eight students had prior musical background; seven of them were taking classical piano lessons (between
grades 1 and 5) and one student was taking classical violin lessons. The whole class was involved in the study and two groups in particular were video recorded. Both groups had between five and seven members. The first group, comprising girls, chose to play their own arrangement of a popular song and did not use the chord and guide sheets for keyboard, guitar, bass guitar and drums provided, except for the guitar fingering chart. The second group, comprising boys, did not use any teacherprovided chord/guide sheets at all.
Prior to this study, all the students had a basic knowledge of guitar, having attended 8 hours of guitar lessons in Primary 5. The pedagogical method used in these lessons was formal learning which involved a teacher instructing the whole class by means of a software programme and dictating the lesson according to a pre-determined structure, song selection and pace. Students had no autonomy in song choice, mode of learning or pace.
In their Primary 6 year, before the commencement of informal learning, students were given formal instruction on how to play the instruments of the pop band. These formal learning lessons had the same structure as their previous lessons and were teacher-determined as well as teacher-directed.
Students learnt how to play the various instrumental parts of the song ‘Just the Way You Are’ and sang and played along to instrumental tracks. For the guitarists, the chords were simplified to facilitate chord changes while the keyboardists learnt to play chords by reading fingering charts. During the learning of keyboard skills, they would play these chords to a basic pop beat, to keep pulse. Students assigned to the bass guitar would learn the positions of the notes and basic fingering techniques.
The students dutifully played the same instrument as a class along with the instrumental tracks of the song. During the learning process, students were not given the opportunity to group with their friends to perform as a band.
Commencement of Informal Learning Music Lessons
The project involved students choosing their own group members or what Green (2002) would call a friendship group. The students had autonomy over the choice of songs for performance, instruments and song arrangements. The teacher laid down the expected learning outcomes of performing the chorus of their chosen musical piece at the sixth and final music lesson. Weekly lessons lasting 30 minutes each time were conducted in the second term of school.
Before the lessons started, students formed their friendship groups and were free to choose their own songs from any genre of their own choice but were advised to avoid songs with sexual or violent lyrics or connotations. Each member was assigned an instrumental or vocal part within the groups. The instrument set provided included the guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and drums. Groups were limited to a maximum of six students per group due to the limitation of resources. All groups practiced in their friendship groups throughout the six lessons.
The teacher helped each group to look through their song choices and instrumentation. She would advise groups to reconsider their song choice should the instrumentation be unsuitable for the song style. Due to the limited sessions and lesson duration, groups were limited to play only the chorus of their song choice. They were given the autonomy to either produce their own version of the song or to replicate the song. Chord sheets as well as fingering charts were provided for all instrumental parts. Drum notation was also provided even though the students had not learnt to read it before.
Each group was assigned a guitar, a keyboard, a bass guitar, a drum pad and a microphone. In some groups, there were minor variations in instrumentation, for example, some groups had two guitars, a keyboard but no bass guitar. A mini iPad which could be plugged into the JamHub (www.jamhub.com) was also provided. All these provisions were plugged into the JamHub and allowed the students
Data Collection
to either practice and play on their own, alongside YouTube tracks individually, or as a group.
The teacher played the role of a facilitator. She took care to stand back and observe the students and diagnose issues in playing together or the music arrangement. She discussed with her students her observations and asked diagnostic questions, and when requested, helped students to understand and solve the problem at hand. The autonomy, however, laid with the students; they had the final decision on whether to accept the teacher’s suggestions. The teacher also took care to take on her students’ perspectives and help her students achieve the objectives they set for themselves. No sequenced order was dictated as the students decided on their own learning sequence and progress.
At the end of some sessions, a group would be selected to perform their song for the class. It was emphasised that this was merely a showcase of their work in progress and not their final performance. A performance by all the groups was then scheduled after the end of the six lessons. This was clearly communicated to the students at the beginning of study.
Audio and video recordings were taken of the two chosen groups, for the duration of the lessons. The students would complete exit cards weekly. Post-lesson interviews were also conducted with the two groups of students after each lesson. A post-course survey was done by all the students at the end of the six lessons. The questions of the survey and the weekly exit cards were related to the descriptors of a self-directed music learner (see Table 2). The exit cards consisted of a mix of checklist questions as well as an open-ended question to elaborate on one of the checklist questions. However, due to time constraints, the weekly exit cards were only completed for three out of the six lessons. The post-course survey consisted of open-ended questions. The weekly exit cards and the post-course survey are presented in Appendices 1 and 2.
Table 2: Descriptors of a self-directed music learner in a group setting
Code Themes Subset
R1
R Takes Responsibility for own learning
QR Questions and Reflects upon his learning
P
Perseveres in the pursuit of learning
Description
Searches for resources on the Internet or elsewhere to learn his/her instrumental part
R2 Sets learning goals for himself/herself and takes active steps to reach these learning goals
R3 Sets group learning goals and works cooperatively with group to achieve learning goals
R4 Suggests ways to improve the group’s performance like making changes to the arrangement of the song
QR1 Reflects upon his/her own progress as well as the progress of the group
QR2 Thinks about the quality of his/her playing and of the performance of the whole group
QR3 Discusses progress of the whole group as well as problems faced and tries to identify the root of the problem
P1 Does not give up even when facing difficulties in learning his/her instrumental part or playing as a group
P2 Searches for solutions or tutorials via media or approaches peers/ teachers for help when encountering difficulties in learning
P3 Puts in extra hours outside of lesson time on own initiative to complete song
P4 Completes the song in time for the performance
Data Analysis
Findings
The weekly exit cards, post-course surveys and video transcripts were collated and coded according to the themes of (1) taking responsibility for own learning, (2) questioning and reflecting upon own learning and (3) persevering in the pursuit of learning. Since much of information in the video were non-conversational in nature, they were thus not transcribed. Videos were also viewed, analysed and coded for the above themes.
From the post-course surveys as well as the exit cards, it was found that students demonstrated traits of self-directedness, as defined by the three themes of a self-directed music learner: (1) taking responsibility for own learning, (2) questioning and reflecting upon own learning and (3) persevering in the pursuit of learning.
Taking Responsibility for Own Learning
The subsets of R1, R2 and P1 were taken into account to ascertain the level in which students took responsibility for their own learning. Students took charge of their own learning by setting goals and taking active steps to work towards their goals. Most of these goals were to ‘play/sing the whole song’ or ‘play the instrument well’ so as to ‘perform well to the class’, with one group wanting to have a ‘unique performance’ that ‘had a twist in it’.
Even though chord sheets and drum notation for each group’s chosen songs were provided, many students took the initiative to search for their own resources to master their instrumental part. Many students also went online to learn how to play their instruments better. Some downloaded additional chords and found the sheet music for the chosen song online. One boy, a drummer, shared that he used the application Real Drums to learn to play the song. It had its own lessons that taught him to play the song. In learning the keyboard arrangement for their chosen songs, students also preferred to use their own arrangements. Two groups went online to search the Synthesia of the song they were playing and found the musical score for the song the group was performing. These were more complex than what was provided in the teacher’s chord sheets and fingering charts, which were basic triad-chords in root position for the keyboard.
Another keyboardist approached his own piano teacher for help with the chords to his chosen song. Students hardly approached the teacher for help except when they encountered technical difficulties such as when they could not hear their instruments connected to the JamHub. Very few students asked for teacher assistance to understand or use the materials provided. The self-effort taken by students outside of the provided curriculum time and resources in achieving their goals suggested that the informal learning structure had indeed resulted in students becoming more self-directed in their learning.
Questioning and Reflecting upon Own and Group’s Learning and Working Collaboratively to Achieve Learning Goals
The subsets of QR1, QR2, QR3, R3 and R4 were considered to show how self-direction was achieved through questioning and reflecting upon the students’ own and their group’s progress. These include identifying issues that affect progress, how they worked collaboratively as a group to resolve difficulties and to achieve the group’s learning
goals. It also includes how they worked towards achieving greater excellence in their musical performance. Some of the problems identified and the group’s corresponding solutions as captured in post-lesson exit cards are listed below:
Problem identified Students’ quotes Group’s solution Students’ quotes
a. Level of musical skills of the individual students
– The lack of musical knowledge
– A group member’s lack of skill in playing his/ her instrument
b. Musical coordination issues
c. Lack of focus and cooperation amongst group members
‘The instrument most of us chose was what we liked but could not play’
Leveraging on each individual’s musical strengths
‘We switch each instrument to everybody’s best instrument for a better starting’
‘Our guitarist and drummer could not play their instrument well’
‘We can’t play the music fast enough to match the singer’
‘Some members were constantly arguing with each other until the others forced them to stay calm’
‘My group mates were engrossed in playing their instruments instead of working together’
‘My teammate could not choose (decide on) an instrument to play’
Sourcing for a technically simpler arrangement
Simplifying the music to a manageable level of difficulty
‘We changed our sources of the tutorial and could learn better as it was an easier version of the previous one’
‘We decided to only give them a few moments to play their instrument when performing’
Adjustment of tempo ‘We told her to slow down her singing. When we had more practices, we coped with the singer’
Emphasising values ‘I told them the important values we must uphold–teamwork and musicianship’
Encouraging each other ‘My teammates and I gave him choices and told him some benefits of playing that instrument’
(Continued)
Problem identified Students’ quotes Group’s solution Students’ quotes
d. Technical issues ‘(The) microphone was broken’
e. Dissatisfaction with the group’s musical arrangement
‘The drum was always a bit too loud and over the whole music’
‘Our performance was too short and wasn’t as interesting as we wanted it to be’
Alternative arrangements ‘We decided to unplug our instruments from the JamHub so that we could hear each other’s instruments’
‘We reset the input and output to make the sounds sound even’
‘There were more people singing than people playing’
‘When we changed (transited) from the verse to the chorus, it sounded weird’
Changing the musical arrangement of the song or instruments used
‘We found ways to make our performance longer like adding more music and having short conversations (in between musical parts). Our performance became much more interesting after adding those things too.’ (the group added an introduction and a ‘phone conversation’ inspired by Five Nights at Freddy’s before the chosen piece)
‘We solved the problem by making some people who were singing to play instead and it worked great’
‘We changed the sequence of the song to make it sound better with our slower pace’, ‘We decided to use drum to make it not so weird’ (group performed the chorus with all instruments and singers, added in a drum transition then ended with a singing segment)
Students overcame problems that arose, as surfaced in the reflections, and these were resolved through group collaboration, with little teacher involvement. The third informal learning principle of working in friendship groups resulted in collaborative learning, which according to Kirschner, Paas, Kirschner, and Janssen (2011), is effective for problem solving. Students were able to solve a range of problems such as technical issues and musical coordination problems. They
Factors Affecting the Success of Informal
Learning:
Group
Cohesiveness
were also able to improve on the quality of their work by leveraging on each others’ abilities as well as rearranging the music. We thus see that the informal learning approach had led students to become effectively self-directed in achieving learning goals.
Not all groups, however, were equally effective in self-directing their learning. Students showed different levels of accomplishment during the final performance. This may be the result of the different group dynamics at play in each group. We discovered two types of group dynamics at play. The first type was characterised by effective collaboration due to the cohesiveness of the group. The second was the non-cohesive group characterised by a lack of cooperation.
In the cohesive group, members worked cooperatively and took active steps to ensure that group goals were met and that the musical learning of each group member was achieved. They took the initiative to help themselves and their group members master their instrumental parts through peer sharing and peer coaching. This was evidently seen in the group playing ‘Toreador March’. The group had decided to create their own arrangement of ‘Toreador March’ based on their goal of a ‘unique performance’ such that ‘no other groups had the same genre’.
This group had four keyboardists and one drummer. We shall call the keyboardists Anna, Belle, Celine and Dion. Anna was the only member of the group with some musical background in piano. She took it upon herself ‘to finish learning the song’ as well as the opening to help the rest of her friends with the song. Although Belle did not have any musical background, she ‘searched online and found a video which showed a much easier tutorial’. She shared this with her fellow group members Celine and Dion. Celine, who was sharing the same keyboard as Belle, then ‘taught’ Belle how to play the chords from the easier tutorial. Using the iPad, Belle and Celine then played the Synthesia tutorial while practising as a means of diagnosing their mistakes. Teamwork was evident as reflected by one member’s post-survey reflections:
‘when someone does not know how to play a certain part of the song, someone from our group will help that person’.
The group also worked as a team to make changes outside curriculum time via telecommunications. Anna played a more complicated version from a score found online. They also added a piano solo and musical effects to ensure the goal of a ‘unique performance’ was met.
The non-cohesive group was the exception rather than the norm. There was a clear lack of cooperation which hampered many aspects of the group’s progress. It was shared by the students that the group did not work together and that they could not do much. The leader felt that the group fought every lesson. The group had problems deciding their roles. An example was when one member did not want to be the singer and it was supposed to be the role of another group member. They had problems settling on their chosen song and changed their song in the middle of the project. Even when the group stayed back to practice, there was a lack of cooperation and the group members were not taking it seriously. This resulted in the inability of the group to complete the song or to coordinate musically even though, the pianist of the group had succeeded in playing his own part well and the drummer had a certain measure of drumming proficiency. This outcome was not surprising. This group had been ineffective due to a lack of cohesiveness within the group, which according to research by Evans and Dion (1991), correlates positively with productiveness. Group cohesiveness, therefore, is an important factor to manage and consider for any teacher facilitating informal learning.
The subsets of P1, P2 and P3 reflect the students’ perseverance in learning a completely new instrument with only one scaffolding lesson, and how they achieved the learning outcome of performing a song as a band by the end of the project. When faced with a lack of knowledge, students did not give up but persevered in learning their instrumental parts with the help of the Internet. Some would seek help from more knowledgeable peers, their siblings, relatives or private music teachers. To overcome the lack of time for practice during music lessons, students went to their classmates’ houses or stayed back after school hours to use the practice room. Students came up with solutions for the variety of challenges faced and successfully employed these
Perseveres in the Pursuit of Learning
Musical Learning and Source of Knowledge
solutions to achieve their learning goals. These were evidence of their perseverance at work.
While informal learning positively impacts self-directedness, we also needed to discuss if there was significant musical learning, for a pedagogy used in music lessons should rightly result in significant music learning. Significant musical learning was observed by the teacher in the final performance. This was also reflected by the students in the post-programme survey with students claiming to have improved in the following skills:
Student quotes
Technical skills ‘I have learnt to play basic notes of piano’, ‘I know how to play basic chords now’
Aural skills ‘I am now able to hear a song and try to pick out the keys’
Ensemble skills ‘I learned how to play as a group’
In the case of the keyboardists, six out of the 13 keyboardists had no prior knowledge of right-handed melody playing on the keyboard. They had only been taught left-handed chord-playing for 30 minutes in the scaffolding lesson before this project. They learned how to play either the melody or accompanying chords during the process of arranging for the project. Seven out of 13 keyboardists had prior classical piano knowledge as they had taken private music lessons outside of school. They expanded their repertoire from a wholly classical genre to include songs from the popular genre and learnt to play melodies by ear. Some also learnt improvisation skills of playing an accompanying harmonisation to the melody. This improvement in musical skills is consistent with existing research on informal learning by Hallam et al. (2008) which reported enhanced musical skills as a result of using the informal learning pedagogy.
Interestingly, keyboardists with or without musical background learned their musical skills through the Internet. Those without musical background picked up their knowledge through amateur
Skills
Conclusion
or professional instructional videos on YouTube, Synthesia , The Online Pianist or through peer tutoring by more knowledgeable peers. Even those who were accustomed to learning the keyboard in the conventional formal learning approach via a qualified professional abandoned their traditional learning method of playing from scores and picked up new skills. While the aural method is effective for some, there are many other pathways for effective learning via the Internet or through peers. Hence, it is important that a teacher using the informal learning pedagogy take into consideration the learning methods suited to each student and make provisions for them.
In conclusion, we can see that informal learning does facilitate growth in musical skills and knowledge in students with and without prior instrumental skills, which is consistent with a study of informal learning in the United Kingdom by Hallam et al. (2008), and another in Australia by Jeanneret (2010). Learning is, however, achieved through a variety of sources which is something the facilitator of informal learning should bear in mind when structuring and facilitating informal learning.
From the findings, we can conclude that informal learning does indeed nurture in students the outcome of self-directedness as students are encouraged to develop a sense of responsibility, to question and reflect upon, and persevere in their own learning. As the students involved in the research were high-ability students, outcomes for lower ability students remain unknown. It is recommended that another study be conducted to understand the effect of ability on the impact and outcomes of informal learning. The qualitative nature and purposeful sampling also limits generalisability in this context.
Informal learning is also an effective means for differentiated learning to take place especially of a variety of instruments within the context of a single classroom. Musical skills would be significantly enhanced through ensemble music making at the students’ own pace. The success of collaboration, however, is dependent on group cohesiveness. Teachers who wish to employ the informal learning pedagogy in
References
teaching music should take into consideration the group dynamics within each group when facilitating informal learning.
In addition, learning can be achieved through a variety of means beyond the aural approach and the teacher implementing informal learning structures should take into consideration the many learning pathways of the students.
Brockett, R. G., & Hiemstra, R. (1991). Self-direction in adult learning: Perspectives on theory, research and practice. London and New York: Routledge.
Brookfield, S. D. (2009). Self-directed learning in R. Maclean & D. Wilson (eds.), International handbook of education for the changing world of work (pp. 2615–2627). Netherlands: Springer.
Coombs, P. H., Prosser, R., & Ahmed, M. (1973). New paths to learning for rural children and youth: Nonformal education for rural development. London, UK: International Council for Educational Development. D’Amore, A. (Ed.). (2009). Musical futures: An approach to teaching and learning. Resource pack (2nd ed.). London, UK: Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Evans, C. R., & Dion, K. L. (1991). Group cohesion and performance: A meta-analysis. Small Group Research, 22 (7), 175–186. doi:10.1177/1046496491222002
Folkestad, G. (2006). Formal and informal learning situations or practices vs formal and informal ways of learning. British Journal of Music Education, 23(2), 135–145. doi:10.1017/S0265051706006887
Green, L. (2002). How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Green, L. (2008). Music, informal learning and the school: A new classroom pedagogy. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Green, L., & Walmsley, A. (2006/2009). Classroom resources for informal music learning, teachers’ pack [Personalising music learning teachers’ resource pack, section 2]. London, UK: Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Retrieved from www.musicalfutures.org
Hallam, S., Creech, A., & McQueen, H. (2011). Musical Futures: A case study investigation: Final Report October 2011. London: Institute of Education, University of London.
Hallam, S., Creech A., Sandford C., Rinta T., & Shave K. (2008). Survey of Musical Futures: A report from Institute of Education, University of London for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Retrieved from http:// eprints.ioe.ac.uk/2301/1/Hallam2008_Musical_Futures_report_final_ version.pdf
Ho, H. P., & Chua, S. L. (2012). Piloting informal and non-formal approaches for music teaching in five secondary schools in Singapore: An introduction. In S. L. Chua & H. P. Ho (Eds.), Connecting the stars: Essays on student-centric music education . Singapore: Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the Arts.
Jeanneret, N. (2010). Musical Futures in Victoria. Australian Journal of Music Education, 2010(2), 148–164.
Kirschner, F., Paas, F., Kirschner, P. A., & Janssen, J. (2011). Differential effects of problem-solving demands on individual and collaborative learning outcomes. Learning and Instruction, 21(4), 587–599.
Lum, C. H., & Dairianathan, E. (2013). Reflexive and reflective perspectives of musical childhoods in Singapore. In T. Wiggins & P. S. Campbell (Eds.), Oxford handbook of children’s musical cultures (pp. 332–349). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Ministry of Education, Singapore. (2009). Desired outcomes of education . Retrieved from https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/ education-system/desired-outcomes-of-education
Small, C. (1998). Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening Hanover and London, UK: Wesleyan University Press.
Teo, T. (2005, November). Relationship of selected listener variables and musical preference of young students in Singapore. Music Education Research, 7(3), 349–362. doi:10.1080/14613800500324556
Appendix 1 Weekly Exit Cards
Please tick the statements that are true.
R1,R2 I set goals for myself and achieved them.
R3,R4 We discussed our progress and made improvements as a group.
QR I analysed my progress while I was playing.
P1 I persevered even though it was difficult mastering some of the music or coordinating to play as a group.
R2,P2 I approached the facilitators for help.
R1,P2 I searched for solutions or tutorials outside of the lesson.
R2,P3 I spent time outside of the lesson practising my instrument.
Please elaborate on one of the statements you have ticked above.
Appendix 2
Post-Course Survey
1 What were your goals as a group? Did your group discuss the group’s progress along the way?
2 Did you discuss and identify problems when playing as a group? What were the problems? What were the solutions the group decided upon?
3 Do you think the group cooperated well and made progress or do you think progress was hampered by lack of cooperation on some members’ part? Please describe in more detail.
4 Did the group make any changes along the way to improve the song? What were the changes you made?
5 What were your goals as an individual? How do you feel about your own progress in the course of this programme?
6 Whom did you approach when you encountered difficulties? Or did you find help via ICT? Describe. P2
7 Did you look for any other resources to help you learn your instrumental part on top of what was provided? If yes, what were the resources you used?
(Continued)
R3,QR1
R4,QR3
R3,P1
R4,P2
R2,QR1
R1,P2
Did you put in extra hours outside of lesson time in order to put together a good song? Describe how you spent these extra hours. (e.g. Practising as a group, as an individual, etc.)
Do you like this new way of learning as compared to previous ways of learning? Why?
12 Do you think you have improved in your musical skills? Please give details.
What were your goals as a group? Did your group discuss the group’s progress along the way?
Did you discuss and identify problems when playing as a group? What were the problems? What were the solutions the group decided upon?
Do you think the group cooperated well and made progress or do you think progress was hampered by lack of cooperation on some members’ part? Please describe in more detail.
Did the group make any changes along the way to improve the song? What were the changes you made?
What were your goals as an individual? How do you feel about your own progress in the course of this programme?
Whom did you approach when you encountered difficulties? Or did you find help via ICT? Describe.
19 Did you look for any other resources to help you learn your instrumental part on top of what was provided? If yes, what were the resources you used?
Did you put in extra hours outside of lesson time in order to put together a good song? Describe how you spent these extra hours. (e.g. Practising as a group, as an individual, etc.)
21 Did you manage to complete the song at the end of the six sessions?
Who do you think was in charge during this whole programme? Was it the teacher or the students? Why do you think so?
23
Do you like this new way of learning as compared to previous ways of learning? Why?
24 Do you think you have improved in your musical skills? Please give details.
02
Developing 21CC through the General Music Programme: An Exploratory Study of Collaborative Music Making through an Orff-Inspired Teaching Approach
Sharon Grace Tan Boon Fong, Cheah Swee Ee, Yazid Bin Adali and Wong Chee Kuen
Princess Elizabeth Primary School
Abstract
Introduction
The purpose of this mixed method study was to explore the effectiveness of an Orff-inspired teaching approach to develop students’ 21st century competencies (21CC). One intact primary four class of 36 students comprising 19 boys and 17 girls participated in eight 1-hour lessons. Results indicated a significant difference in the overall score after the treatment period for both males and females. Of particular interest was the finding that the new teaching approach fosters the development of 21CC for students with little musical experience. Specifically, there was a positive change in the students’ creativity and confidence. No significant change in critical thinking was found. Analysis of the qualitative data gathered from one focus group discussion with students and open-ended post-intervention questionnaire corroborated with the findings of the quantitative data.
Keywords: Collaborative music making, Orff approach, creativity collaboration
One of the main goals of the Singapore education system in the 21st century is to equip all students with the essential 21st century knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in life, career and citizenship (P21, 2011; Tan, 2016). The Ministry of Education’s (MOE) 21st Century Framework and Desired Outcomes (MOE, 2010) was implemented to guide schools towards this goal. It encourages teachers to focus on designing student-centric, values-driven education through innovative pedagogies and approaches. This would ensure students are provided with authentic learning experiences to help them acquire relevant 21CC values and skills.
The general music programme (GMP) syllabus (MOE, 2015) was reviewed in response to meet these challenges. It recommends pedagogies and teaching approaches that empower music teachers to deliver innovative music lessons to develop students’ musical abilities. More crucially, GMP lessons serve as a platform that teachers can tap on to provide our students with a student-centric and values-driven holistic education. One of the music-specific pedagogies that teachers can harness to provide meaningful music learning experiences for our students is the Orff approach which integrates movement, dance and language into music lessons. This student-centred approach allows for engagement in musical experiences that can develop students’ aural, visual, kinaesthetic and creative skills. Through innovative, well-organised and developmentally structured music programmes, the cognitive development of our students can be greatly enhanced.
Central to the Orff approach is the belief that every child can learn and each contributes according to ability (Frazee, 2006). Orff-inspired lessons are thus designed to build on each student’s individual skills level and stage of development to allow students to develop their musical potential at their own pace. Orff-inspired music activities are also conducted in non-competitive environments where students are encouraged to participate and contribute. While students work collaboratively in Orff-inspired music lessons, the social value of group music making and individual creative contributions are reinforced. Additionally, the Orff approach encourages teachers to take into account the local, social and cultural context, and to provide opportunities for students to experience the richness of the culture(s) they belong to.
It is this flexibility and adaptability of the Orff approach that drew us to embark on this learning journey. As such, in our study, we explored ways to adopt the fundamental principles of the Orff approach to nurture 21CC to help students to become confident individuals who can contribute effectively when they enter the workforce while learning to appreciate and create music.
Literature Review
Our research questions are as follows:
1. How does an Orff-inspired music classroom develop 21CC in students, in particular the 4Cs, that is, collaboration, creativity, confidence and critical thinking?
2. Is there a significant difference in students’ level of collaboration, creativity, confidence and critical thinking before and after the treatment period?
There is a common consensus that providing our students with a strong academic foundation would not prepare them adequately to thrive in a future driven by rapid globalisation and technological advancements. To enable our children to succeed in a fast-changing world, educators need to consciously and conscientiously create opportunities for our children to develop 21CC. According to Kivunja (2014), skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, effective communication, collaboration as well as creativity and innovation have to be taught explicitly to ensure that students are well equipped with these skills.
MOE’s Framework for 21CC and Student Outcomes
Using the 4Cs to Achieve Desired Student Outcomes in the Music Classroom
The MOE is committed to equipping students with the necessary knowledge, skills and values for living and working as adults in the 21st century. The competencies the MOE has identified to be essential in the 21st century are encapsulated in the MOE’s Framework for 21CC. To teach these 21CC, the MOE has developed the GMP to strengthen the quality of music education to develop students’ creative and expressive capacities.
A key strategy of the GMP is the recommendation that music teachers adopt pedagogies that engage students through a variety of musical experiences. It is through active participation in meaningful and purposeful music activities that students will learn core values, develop social and emotional competencies and 21CC that will equip them to stay relevant to meet the demands of a globalised world.
The teachers’ role in encouraging student’s engagement in the music classrooms is critical in helping students acquire 21CC. This is most likely to succeed in a collaborative learning environment where the teacher acts as a facilitator by ‘setting up key elements of activities,
What are the Suggested Pedagogies for Teaching Music?
but leaves partial content and processes of these activities to the decisions of students, allowing them the space to personalise their own learning experience’ (Pressler, 2010, p. 20). Accordingly, when students work together, the act of being actively involved in making decisions and solving problems, Pressler contends, could be the agency in moulding values and social and emotional competencies.
Pressler (2010) illustrated how the collaborative approach works by teaching a group of students to learn to play chamber music. As he wanted the students to learn to identify the important skill set required for effective collaboration, he asked them to unpack or analyse the learning process after each training session, placing emphasis on the process of working collaboratively as a group rather than on the content. Through this activity, students learnt the value of critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving, which are transferable to situations beyond the music classroom.
Thomas (2010) concurs with the view that the realisation of the desired outcomes of the 21CC can only come about through an effective curriculum that is ‘innovative, deep and limitless’. As such, she advocates that teachers implement innovative teaching practices that would help students grow. She further stressed that a curriculum that places constraints such as grading students based on their ability to achieve a set of competencies will only stunt the very competencies we aim to achieve. A good music curriculum, therefore, is one where there are many opportunities for students to respond creatively with support and acceptance from their teachers.
Kodaly, Dalcroze and Orff are three pedagogical approaches teachers can use to provide students with meaningful learning experiences, both aurally and kinaesthetically (MOE, 2015). Teachers are encouraged to plan innovative lessons using the strengths of these pedagogies to engage students. In this study, we explored using the basic principles of the Orff approach to foster the development of 21CC.
History and Philosophy of Orff Schulwerk
Carl Orff was a German composer who left behind a legacy in music education. Orff introduced a dynamic approach to music and movement education that began as an experiment ninety years ago (Goodkin, 2002). His involvement in music education began when
his friend and colleague, Dorothee Gunther, used his compositions in the training of dancers and gymnasts in her school, the Guntherschule, in Munich in 1924. Seeing how the students learnt better by doing rather than learning about them convinced Orff that adults, as well as children, learn music more effectively when they play, dance, create and improvise music. As such, he felt strongly that students must physically experience beat, meter, tempo, and rhythm, and that they express these elements in dance and through instruments from the very beginning (Choksy, Abramson, Gillispie, & Woods, 1986).
Orff’s philosophy and beliefs in music education is best appreciated from his own writings (Orff, 1974):
‘Experience first, then intellectualise.’
‘Elemental music is never just music. It’s bound up with movement, dance and speech, and so it is a form of music in which one must participate, in which one is involved not as a listener but as a coperformer’.
‘Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play, and then they will find that what they have mastered is child’s play’.
It is clear that Orff believed strongly that music lessons must first appeal to a child’s instinct of play. Play activities like hand-clapping and movement games that helps to develop a child’s psychomotor and social skill should be incorporated in an Orff classroom. Together with singing and dancing activities, they can enrich a child’s musical experiences (Goodkin, 2002).
Orff (1974) believed that when children become active participants in the music making process through singing, moving and playing instruments, all children, and not just the musically talented, are able to enjoy and create music. His advocacy that music is for everyone was greatly influenced by Maria Montessori. Montessori believed in a child-centred approach in education where children should be given the opportunities to experience doing things by themselves. It is the
in Music
teacher’s responsibility to prepare the environment, provide appropriate materials, and then step back and allow the child the time and space to experiment and to construct knowledge (Mooney, 2000).
Shamrock (1997) summarised the Orff’s approach in music education as a procedure that guides children through four phases of music development: (1) exploration, (2) imitation, (3) improvisation and (4) creation. The phases may be used in any order to accomplish the goals of a particular lesson at the discretion of the Orff teacher. However, the experience gained from the first two phases would facilitate their ability in improvisation and creation. Regardless of the order of the phases, a teacher committed to the Orff pedagogical ideal should strive to be the facilitator rather than a director in the classroom. The lessons he or she plans must empower the child to take increasing responsibility for working out the musical task and contributing to the lesson process as they gain more understanding and knowledge of the musical concepts. Incorporating Orff process into the music classroom is therefore an ideal way for teachers to allow students to explore musical creativity where they can experience success at every step they take.
Benefits of the Orff Approach
Educators find the Orff approach effective in teaching 21CC, particularly critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication (Lapka, 2010). Lapka (2010) provided an example of a lesson of how students learn 21CC in a first grade lesson on soundscape. In the lesson, the teacher modelled several ideas for the students to imitate the sounds of a bird by introducing percussion instruments. The students were given a choice of three ideas from which they could choose that best matched the sounds of the bird. She observed that when the teacher and students reserved judgment, and valued one another’s ideas, it spurred more exchange of ideas, thus promoting creativity and collaborative learning.
The Orff approach advocates for every child to learn at their own level of understanding. As such, it has been widely adopted to cater to the students’ differing levels of musical skills and experiences. High-ability students can be challenged through differentiated instructions in an Orff classroom while students with average abilities may learn at their own pace (Choksy, Abramson, Gillespie, Woods, & York, 2001).
Orff’s Approach
Methodology
Given the adaptability and flexibility of the Orff approach, it has been extended to teach individuals with special needs (Darrow, 2008). For example, handicapped students are able to participate in Orff musical activities because of the simplicity of the techniques. And with the Singapore Government’s ongoing efforts to build a more inclusive society (Yeo, Neihart, Chong, & Huan, 2010), this offers assurance to music teachers that the Orff approach is a viable approach that will help all students experience inclusivity in the classroom.
In conclusion, research suggests that the Orff approach is a suitable pedagogy teachers can explore to bring about outcomes that we see as essential in allowing students to learn music while developing critical core values and 21CC that will help them grow holistically.
This is a mixed method research study that was conducted over a period of eight months (March to October 2015). It began with the teacher researchers attending a 5-day professional development workshop, ‘Orff Approach to Student-Centric Music Lessons’. The professional development experience culminated in the designing of an Orff-inspired music lesson package to cater to the needs of a mixedability class. The teacher-researcher who implemented the lessons has 8 years of music teaching experience and was trialling the Orff-inspired approach for the first time in the school.
The participants were from one intact primary four class of mixed academic abilities. There were 19 boys and 17 girls in the class and all were 10 years old. In terms of music ability, the majority of the students did not have formal music training apart from the three years of GMP experience in the school. A small number of students had private music lessons in instrumental playing or were involved in the school’s vocal or instrumental co-curricular activities (CCA).
The Orff-Inspired Music Lessons (Intervention Procedures)
The teacher-researcher planned and carried out the study over eight 1-hour lessons. The Orff-inspired lessons were designed to provide students with the guidance to progress sequentially through the stages of musical development—exploration, imitation, improvisation and creation. The music lessons were anchored on a collaborative setting
Data Collection and Instrumentation
where students had ample opportunities to interact with their peers to make musical decisions collectively, problem solve and work towards the common goal of a performance by each group at the sixth lesson.
In a typical lesson, the teacher would begin to engage the students through imitative body percussion activities. This preparatory activity seeks to sensitise their physical bodies in preparation for a movement lesson. Following this, the teacher would encourage the students to explore different ways of creating sounds with their bodies. Once they have experienced exploring and creating, the teacher would challenge them to think of how to translate their body percussion to a selection of percussion instruments, and to share the rationale behind their choices. By involving them to think deeply about their learning and applying what they have learnt and communicating their ideas with their group members and their classmates, the teacher would have led them through a process that would foster critical thinking skills.
This structured progression of lessons had been planned to provide students the space and time to think about what they have learnt and to help them take ownership of their own learning. By constantly challenging and encouraging the students, they would learn to think critically and creatively.
To investigate the effects of the Orff-inspired intervention programme on the development of 21CC in students, a survey (Tan, Wong, & Chan, 2015) was administered to the class before and after the intervention programme. The survey comprised four subscales: confidence, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. Each subscale consisted of three items (e.g. ‘My friends and I often help one another’), making up a total of 12 items in the survey. All the questions in the questionnaire were designed for a Likert scale response using a score of 1 for ‘Strongly Agree’ through 5 for ‘Strongly Disagree’.
Qualitative Data
Qualitative data were collected in the form of structured open-ended free response questions and focus group discussions. The free response provided the opportunity for students to reflect on what they liked
Quantitative Findings
and did not like about the music lessons. Focus group discussions were conducted with a selected group of students to gather information to ‘triangulate findings in order that they may be mutually corroborated’ (Bryman, 2006). These sessions were conducted at the end of each lesson. The questions were crafted to elicit the students’ perspectives with respect to 21CC, in particular, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and confidence. The data from the responses of the focus discussions were also coded and used for analysis.
A paired-samples t-test was used to determine if there were significant differences in students’ self-reported levels of 21CC before and after the intervention. Findings indicated that students’ self-reported levels of 21CC increased after the Orff-inspired GMP lessons (preintervention M = 30.43, SD = 5.08; post-intervention M = 26.91, SD = 7.05; due to reverse scoring, lower scores indicate higher levels and vice versa). The difference between the mean scores was statistically significant, t(34) = 2.90, p = 0.006. The effect size was medium (Cohen’s d = 0.503). These results indicated that students’ self-reported levels of 21CC were significantly higher after experiencing the Orff-inspired classes.
Creativity
Confidence
A paired-samples t-test was used to determine if there were significant differences in students’ self-reported levels of creativity before and after the intervention. Findings indicated that students’ self-reported levels of creativity increased after the Orff-inspired GMP lessons (preintervention M = 7.69, SD = 1.69; post-intervention M = 6.51, SD = 2.01; due to reverse scoring, lower scores indicate higher levels and vice versa). The difference between the mean scores was statistically significant, t(34) = 2.89, p = 0.007. The effect size was medium (Cohen’s d = 0.492). These results indicated that the students’ self-reported levels of creativity were significantly higher after experiencing the Orff-inspired classes.
A paired-samples t-test was used to determine if there were significant differences in students’ self-reported levels of confidence before and after the intervention. Findings indicated that students’ self-reported levels of confidence increased after the Orff-inspired GMP lessons
Thinking
Not in Music CCA
(pre-intervention M = 8.06, SD = 2.17; post-intervention M = 7.17, SD = 2.38; due to reverse scoring, lower scores indicate higher levels and vice versa). The difference between the mean scores was statistically significant, t(34) = 2.57, p = 0.015. The effect size was medium (Cohen’s d = 0.44). These results indicated that the students’ self-reported levels of confidence were significantly higher after experiencing the Orff-inspired classes.
No significant differences in students’ self-reported levels of critical thinking were found.
A paired-samples t-test was used to determine if there were significant differences in self-reported levels of 21CC before and after the intervention, in particular, among students who did not participate in music CCAs. Findings indicated that students’ self-reported levels of 21CC increased after the Orff-inspired GMP lessons (pre-intervention M = 30.41, SD = 5.43; post-intervention M = 25.83, SD = 7.09; due to reverse scoring, lower scores indicate higher levels and vice versa). The difference between the mean scores was statistically significant, t(28) = 3.36, p = 0.002. The effect size was medium (Cohen’s d = 0.65). These results indicated that among students’ who did not participate in music CCAs, their self-reported levels of 21CC were significantly higher after experiencing the Orff-inspired classes.
Students without Private Music Lessons
A paired-samples t-test was used to determine if there were significant differences in self-reported levels of 21CC before and after the intervention, in particular, among students who did not have private music lessons. Findings indicated that students’ self-reported levels of 21CC increased after the Orff-inspired GMP lessons (preintervention M = 30.33, SD = 4.80; post-intervention M = 27.07, SD = 5.86; due to reverse scoring, lower scores indicate higher levels and vice versa). The difference between the mean scores was statistically significant, t(26) = 2.48, p = 0.02. The effect size was medium (Cohen’s d = 0.48). These results indicated that among students’ who did not have private music lessons, their self-reported levels of 21CC were significantly higher after experiencing the Orffinspired classes.
Critical
Students
Qualitative Findings
T he post-intervention questionnaire was administered after the intervention. The responses of the students from the two open-ended questions were first collated and then coded. They were coded to enable the teacher-researchers to find out what students liked and did not like about the music lessons. Similarly, the responses from the focus group discussion were also coded and analysed.
Three themes emerged from the analyses of the data. They were (1) social and emotional competencies–interpersonal and intra-personal skills, (2) collaborative creativity and (3) confidence through performance.
Social and Emotional Competencies
In general, students were forthcoming in writing and talking about their learning experiences from the Orff-inspired lesson package. Their feedback provided useful information on how their participation in group work through the Orff-inspired lessons had helped in developing their social and emotional competencies with regard to intra-personal and interpersonal skills.
The nature of the tasks in the Orff-inspired GMP lessons afforded students situations for interactions with their group members as they learnt to create music together, prepare to perform in an ensemble and talk about their successes and failures. These opportunities for communication appeared to have led students to become more aware of their personal strengths and weaknesses and what they enjoyed about the music lessons, as is evident in students’ responses in the post-intervention open-ended survey.
Students revealed that they especially enjoyed the musical learning experiences of body percussion and playing on the Orff instruments. Beyond the gratification of instrumental playing, the students shared the ‘fun’ came from group performance with their friends.
Working in groups also seemed to have heightened students’ social awareness. Many of the students reported that they had a better understanding of their peers in the course of working together to achieve the goals of the lessons.
A student proudly described one of her group members as such:
‘I got to know that Shanti doesn’t give up (easily) and she is caring too. It was fun working together with my own group.’
was how a student proudly described one of her group members and the enjoyment of group work.
Another student, a group leader, recalled how knowing two of her group members better helped her to resolve a problem:
‘I knew that two of my group mates couldn’t work with each other. I decided on the roles for them. I knew that I needed to change (for things to work out).’
Besides self-awareness, students were able to identify their friends’ strengths and weaknesses, and worked towards finding ways to complement one another and accommodate the needs of their group members to complete the assigned task. An incident related by one student illustrated this well:
‘I like group work; and we got to perform at the end...we faced problems like (during) the last lesson, Kalash was not there and he was playing the main melody…there is only one person in my group that knows how to play and that is me so I took up the role. So, whoever plays the other role helped me to sing the main melody. And then it was a good performance.’
Other students also shared similar experiences:
‘Our group actually cooperated with one another. Because they are ok with the roles we have sent them to do and then like Yangkai is good at the beat so we call him to play the beat instead of Kalash. Kalash is also (good) but Kalash thinks we should let Yangkai to play the beat.’
Collaborative Creativity
‘Because I was good at the recorder and the beat but Yong was only good at the beat. So at first I had a drum to play the beat but I thought if they give Yangkai the recorder and he is not very good. He is good but not very confident in playing it so if you give it to him he might not be able to play the song so I decided to give the drum to him and I took the recorder.’
‘I enjoy this term’s music lessons. I learnt to know my group members’ strengths and weaknesses…I also like to do group work with my group members because we can actually do a lot of problem solving.’
The bond forged during times of solving problems together nurtured their friendships and helped them in improving their relationship management skills. There was notable evidence that students valued this development, as was reflected in many of their comments:
‘I enjoyed this term’s music lessons because I have more opportunities to do group work. It made my friendships grow beyond all limits.’
‘I enjoyed the lessons because I got to know more about my friends.’
Perhaps this is best summed up by a student who had just joined the school:
‘Every lesson is a smile for me and all my classmates. My group helped me in a lot of things because they know I am from another country.’
Students expressed positive sentiments towards collaborative work. Findings indicated that collaboration was the catalyst for the generation of more ideas as they worked together to complete a task. For example, students wrote in their reflection in the post-intervention open-ended survey that they enjoyed group work and how they work best when they were able to share and discuss their ideas with their friends.
Confidence through Performance
In their responses during the focus group discussion, the students spoke of how the enjoyment of working together with others enabled them to get more ideas from the discussion:
‘I enjoyed this term (more than) last term because (when) we did it on our own or in pairs, we had less ideas…this term, there were six pupils, everyone gave ideas and then we had a lot of ideas.’
‘Everyone gave an idea and then we looked at the syllables at the correct place and then we tried the song. Some words did not fit well so we changed those words with our group mates.’
Students were given the autonomy to make decisions. This freedom and trust in the students’ abilities to generate their own ideas fostered more creativity in the classroom, as is evident in their sharing during the focus group discussion:
‘Kalash told the group to think out of the box.’
‘I enjoyed group work because we created our own speech piece…we used all the ideas that we gave to our leader, Shanti.’
Performance and peer assessment opportunities provided students with an authentic platform to learn confidence-building skills. Students learnt to be more confident in expressing themselves in music when performing in front of an audience from the many opportunities to perform. Students shared how much they had gained from the experience of learning to perform before an audience:
‘I like group work…I have a chance to perform in front of the class as I can build my confidence.’
‘This term we had a lot of chances to perform and we created a lot of eye contact like what Kalash had said before. We are not looking down, we are looking up. We made eye contact with everyone and that builds up our confidence.’
The students, while working in their groups to prepare for their performance, had ample opportunities to negotiate with one another. In the process, they learnt to be confident to give frank feedback to one another respectfully. This is exemplified by these words used by a student to describe his experience where he made the decision to rearrange the teacher’s pairing of students to facilitate the work process :
‘I know that Mrs Teo pairing them up did not work for my group because two of them didn’t want to work with each other…being the group leader I need to be concerned about my group members and try to fit according to what they want and not make them or force them to do things they don’t want to do. So what I did was I paired them up with people whom they can work together with, confident to work together with them and they didn’t have any problems doing it.’
It was also heartening to know that students had learnt to accept constructive feedback from the teacher and their peers. For example, one student reflected positively about his learning experience through peer-coaching in the post-intervention open-ended survey:
‘When I do not know what to do, my friends help me… when I played the recorder wrongly, they taught me how to hold it and play it. We cooperated to form the speech and melodic ostinato and did quite well.’
In their focus group discussion, the students spoke of how their performance benefitted from feedback from one another:
‘Actually Serene was the person who played, and then she has some problems trying to come in because she was shy and she thought she didn’t have enough practice. So, the only way was to give her eye contact or tapping her lightly.’
Discussion
‘We don’t know what is the right one to fit in the song for our performance. So we voted and we found which one is the best word and we fit it in.’
‘I enjoy performing because people give (sic.) us feedback’.
These observations and reflections by the students clearly reflected their positive learning experiences and the benefits of an Orff-inspired approach, while developing their communication and collaborative skills, creativity and confidence through music-making.
The findings from this study indicated that the Orff-inspired approach is a viable approach to help students develop 21CC. Results indicated a significant difference in the overall score after the treatment period for both males and females. Of particular interest was the finding that the new teaching approach was effective in developing 21CC for students who have limited musical experience. Specifically, there was a positive change in the students’ creativity and confidence. There was no statistically significant change in students’ critical thinking. This might have been because the students may not have a clear understanding of critical thinking. As the development of critical thinking in music is not a given (Pogonowski, 1987), there is a need to learn how to structure lessons that can foster critical thinking.
During the Orff-inspired lessons, students participated in musicmaking activities where they worked collaboratively. They reported during the interview that they had enjoyed working together with their group members. However, the quantitative data from the student survey indicated that students perceived that they had not benefitted significantly in collaboration. There is, therefore, a need to determine the critical factors that had led to the disparity in the students’ perception.
Although the present study suggests that the Orff-inspired approach might contribute to the development of 21CC in students, it also highlights that these competencies are the results of purposeful lesson designs. Additional studies using the Orff approach might help to
References
better understand the extent of the impact of the Orff approach in developing 21CC in students.
This study was limited to a small sample of students (n = 36) in an intact class of mixed abilities. It consisted of a group of students who, in all cases except six, already had musical background where they were involved in formal music instruction in and/or outside the school. The programme planned might have produced quite different results in a different school context and students’ profile.
Looking ahead, the Orff-inspired approach may be used to stimulate students to think musically so that they could engage strongly with musical structures and concepts. Prior training in the Orff approach would better help teachers design music lessons that maximise the affordances of the Orff-inspired approach as a pedagogical tool. The transferability of the research approach of the present study to other levels may be explored.
Bryman, A. (2006). Integrating quantitative and qualitative research: How is it done? Qualitative Research, 6, 97–113.
Choksy, L., Abramson, R., Gillispie, A., & Woods, D. (1986). Teaching music in the twentieth century. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Choksy, L., Abramson, R., Gillespie, A., Woods, D., & York, F. (2001). Teaching music in the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Darrow, A. A. (Ed.). (2008). An Introduction to approaches in music therapy (2nd ed.). Silver Spring, MD: American Music Therapy Association.
Frazee, J. (2006). Orff Schulwerk today: Nurturing musical expression and understanding. New York, NY: Schott.
Goodkin, D. (2002). Play, sing and dance: An introduction to Orff Schulwerk. Mainz: Schott Music Corporation.
Kivunja, C. (2014). Teaching students to learn and to work well with 21st century skills: Unpacking the career and life skills domain of the new learning paradigm. International Journal of Higher Education, 4(1), 1–11.
Lapka, C. (2010). Corff. Illinois Music Educator, 71(2), 100.
Ministry of Education, Singapore. (2010). 21st century competencies Annex A to Annex C. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/ press/files/2010/03/21st-century-competencies-annex-a-to-c.pdf
Ministry of Education, Singapore. (2015). General music programme 2015. Singapore: Ministry of Education.
Mooney, C. G. (2000). Theories of childhood: An introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
Orff, G. (1974). The Orff music therapy: Active furthering of the development of the child. London, UK: Schott.
P21. (2011) Partnership for 21st century skills (P21). Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved from http://www.P21.org
Pogonowski, L. (1987). Developing skills in critical thinking and problem solving. Music Educators Journal, 73(6), 37–41.
Pressler, M. (2010). 21st century learning skills and the power of collaboration: Something for students and educators. Illinois Music Educator, 69(3), 20–21.
Shamrock, M. (1997). Orff-Schulwerk: An integrated foundation. MENC: The National Association for Music Education, 83(6), 41–44.
Tan, L. (2016). Confucius: Philosopher of twenty-first century skills. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 48(12), 1233–1243. doi:10.1080/ 00131857.2016.1182416
Tan, J. P-L., Wong, H. M., & Chan, M. (2015). Primary Education Implementation and Review (PERI) 2014 follow up quantitative evaluation study. Preliminary report. Singapore: MOE. Thomas, J. (2010). 21st century skills—Innovative, deep and limitless. Illinois Music Educator, 71(2), 98.
Yeo, L. S., Neihart, M., Chong W. H., & Huan, H. (2010). Inclusive education in Singapore primary school classrooms. Retrieved from https://www.nie.edu.sg/docs/default-source/nie-research/nie_ research_brief_13-009.pdf?sfvrsn=2
03
A Study on Student Motivation in a Music Video Production Project Facilitated through an Informal Learning Approach Supported by
Information and Communications Technology
Sim Kok Heng, Edgefield Secondary School
Abstract Introduction
This research seeks to investigate aspects of lesson design and learning environment infused with information and communications technology (ICT) that facilitates teaching and learning for the 21st century student. In all, 322 Secondary Two students were surveyed in this study to relate students’ perceptions in conditions that support motivation—autonomy, relatedness and perceived competence, and the type of motivation displayed—intrinsic, external regulation/introjection or identification/ integration, through a group project facilitated by an informal learning approach. The study found that students feel competent when using ICT tools and are more intrinsically motivated when set with novel tasks that they identified to be of value and meaning to them. Furthermore, an informal learning setting which encourages collaborative feedback supports the internalisation of external values in extrinsic motivation while capitalising on learners’ intrinsic motivation to actualise their inherent potential. While deadlines and assessments caused some students to be motivated by introjected regulation, they could identify with its value retrospectively, thereby developing 21st century competencies.
One key characteristic of the informal learning approach is to harness students’ motivation towards learning as they were found to display resilience in task completion while developing music skills (Green, 2008). As such, it is important to understand how this approach infused with information and communications technology (ICT) would facilitate student learning. This study seeks to find out what
Literature Review
aspects of lesson design and learning environment infused with ICT would facilitate teaching and learning in this generation of learners.
The task for the learners in this study was not entirely dictated by the teacher but was student-centred due to the nature of the informal learning pedagogical approach. It would then be interesting to note the music skills and 21st century competencies outlined by the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) (see Annex A) that were developed in the process.
In the self-determination theory (SDT), Deci and Ryan (2000) stated that autonomy, competence and relatedness are the three innate psychological needs that support growth and optimal function. Autonomy refers to the ‘experience of freedom in initiating one’s behaviour’ (Deci & Ryan, 1985, p. 31) in which one has volition over one’s own actions. Competence is to grow to be effective and proficient in performance. Deci and Ryan stated that when learners’ perceptions of own abilities are positive, they would be motivated to take on tasks that are optimally challenging (Ryan & Deci, 2000, p. 64). Relatedness is the sense of connectedness with people through social interaction. When these three elements are combined together, learners are intrinsically motivated to be curious and take on tasks that are optimally challenging (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
Gagné and Deci (2014) reported that many empirical researches concur with SDT and that these three conditions are ‘necessary and sufficient to promote human growth and functioning’ (p. 4). The SDT has also recently been further explored in music education research (Evans, 2015; Renwick & Reeve, 2012).
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
To be intrinsically motivated requires the learner to ‘experience interest and enjoyment’ whereby they feel competent (Deci & Ryan, 1985, p. 34). In other words, they perform tasks without any ‘pressure or tension’ as the tasks are inherently interesting or fun to the learners.
Any motivation that is not intrinsic is extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985, p. 35). Ryan and Deci (2000) identified extrinsic motivation
as a continuum of internalisation of values rather than a single state. This continuum is categorised into four behavioural regulatory styles, namely, external regulation, introjection, identification and integration in increasing extent of internalisation and integration.
The internalisation of goals corresponds with the notion of task value. If the value of a task is perceived as externally controlled, the motivation is described as externally regulated or introjected. Elliot and Church (1997) found that when learners are motivated by performance in assessment, an external regulator corresponding to introjection, they tended to do well in the assessment. If learners are motivated by the fear of failure, an external introjection, they tended to choose easier tasks.
On the other hand, if the value of a task is internally accepted as important to self, the motivation would be integrated as the learner identifies the task as congruent to one’s own values and would subsequently choose challenging tasks (Deci & Ryan, 2000). With increased internalisation, comes greater persistence, self-perception and engagement.
This corresponds to the expectancy-value theory (Eccles et al., 1983; as cited in Wigfield & Eccles, 2002, pp. 94–95), whereby a learner’s motivation is determined by how much learners value the task and whether they expect to succeed. The theory delineates four areas of consideration with respect to the value of a task, namely, attainment value, intrinsic value, utility value and cost.
Attainment value refers to the importance of doing well on a task contributing to sense of self. This relates to identified or integrated internalisation in the SDT (Wigfield & Cambria, 2010). However, if the motive is egocentric, it should be more associated with introjection (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsic value closely relates to the notion of intrinsic motivation while utility value refers to ‘how a task fits into an individual’s future plan’ (Wigfield & Eccles, 2002). Finally, cost is the perceived effort to complete a task. If the effort outweighs the other values, there will be inertia instead of motivation.
Both the internalisation of values in the continuum of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation are important in efforts towards self-regulated learning where learners take active ownership in their own learning process and goal achievement. This action of taking initiative for selfimprovement is critical to self-regulated learning. As observed by Schunk and Zimmerman (2008, p. 4), motivated students:
◆ pay more attention to their learning processes and outcomes;
◆ exercise choice progress faster;
◆ achieve greater mastery by attempting difficult tasks with increased effort; and
◆ experience greater satisfaction when given the opportunity to learn.
Contexts Research
Motivation in Informal Learning
In her study of informal learning, Green (2008) suggested that student autonomy plays a large role in motivating student learning in music. Students were given choice in content including song(s) to learn and subsequently creating cover version(s), teammates, instrumentation and learning strategy. An observation Green highlighted in informal learning was that of ‘peer-directed learning’ (p. 120): how students, with the autonomy given, started to assume leadership spontaneously, sharing leadership and organising peer instruction.
It was reported that the project was fun because the students were able to play on instruments that they were not given the opportunity to do so during regular music lessons. While some students gravitated towards ‘novel’ instruments such as jam band instruments, others chose to use more common classroom instruments. Without further investigation to the specific factors leading to students’ choices, it was apparent that these choices constituted to what made the project fun for the students. These ‘inclinations to take interest in novelty, to actively assimilate, and to creatively apply our skills’ (Ryan & LaGuardia, 2000) is deemed a significant feature of human nature. Here, we can see how the condition of autonomy maintains intrinsic motivation.
On competence, it paralleled Green’s (2008) explanation on ‘inter-sonic meaning’ whereby students’ level of familiarity and competence in a
Rationale of Study
certain musical style correspondingly affected their ability to understand interrelationships between sonic materials and ability to identify with the music. The music materials that the students were copying were critical to the success of her subjects especially in the initial stages of the project. In later stages, where copying was absent, students were less motivated to complete the task but eventually developed the understanding of ‘inter-sonic meaning’ of new materials and completed the task.
On relatedness, the informal learning approach is social in nature and involves giving students autonomy to choose who they like to work with and learn in a cooperative manner. The sense of belonging and interpersonal communication fulfils the need for relatedness and the learning task is accompanied with positive feelings. Besides the fulfilment of the three basic psychological needs, it was noted that peer instruction, peer leadership and on demand teacher support (Green, 2008) served as contributing factors to social motivation.
In Singapore’s current educational assessment practices, it has been observed that many students take grades and assignment deadlines seriously. They are generally motivated by academic pursuits. Deci and Ryan (1985) reported that deadlines and evaluations on performance contingent to the task diminished intrinsic motivation due to the fear of failure or perceiving performance as reward which functions as external regulators. Hence, it seems that these students are externally motivated. While some deem the music grade to be inconsequential due to its status as a non-examinable subject, others perceive a poor music grade as a taint to their good results.
Although it is important to provide students with the right conditions to be intrinsically motivated, extrinsic factors such as school curriculum cycles and expectations limit its effect. Students who have less impetus to complete their music tasks would still be motivated in more external ways such as grades and deadlines. As such, it may be an appropriate pathway to sustain engagement and allow more internalised extrinsic motivation to be developed in the students. Hence, this study seeks to understand what motivates students in a
Context of Study
series of music lessons that is facilitated by an informal learning approach. Although assessment is not part of this study, observing students who regulate themselves to finish their task due to the various perceived values of the assessment report is noteworthy.
Students from Edgefield Secondary School had access to the Macintosh operating system learning environment, in particular, making movies through iMovie and voice recording on a single track in GarageBand. As such, the learning task for this study leveraged on using these tools.
The task required students to compose, record a song and produce it as an MTV in appreciation of their teachers. This was to be broadcast in conjunction with the school’s Teachers’ Day Celebration. Students were assessed based on a set of negotiated criteria. The criteria included skill proficiency displayed through specific parts of the students’ performance, the reception of the target audience and the individual contribution to the product.
Prior to the given task, students had a series of 30-minute lessons on song writing with relevant exercises, during which they had formed their groups. Recording and audio editing tools in GarageBand were briefly introduced and students were expected to work in their respective groups to complete their projects over ten weeks.
Methodology
This study involved a survey of Secondary Two students through questionnaires and focus group discussions. A questionnaire was administered to 322 Secondary Two students a week before the module commenced (see Annex B), and a similar questionnaire was administered a week after the module was completed (see Annex C). The questionnaires aimed to understand students’ motivation in their task assigned. It examined students’ perceptions in the conditions supporting motivation—autonomy, relatedness and perceived competence, and the type of motivation displayed—intrinsic, external regulation/introjection or identification/integration. The questionnaires contained both forced-choice and open-ended questions. Forcedchoice items and its corresponding type of motivation are given in Table 1.
Table 1: Forced-choice questionnaire items and its corresponding condition and type of motivation
Questionnaire item
Conditions and type of motivation
1a. I get to choose my group mates. A, R
1b. It is a meaningful project. Id
1c. I want to learn how MTVs are made. I
1d. My group mates are enthusiastic about it. R
1e. Song writing is fun. I
1f. My group had fun writing our own song. I, R, Id
1g. I like music. I
1h. I like to do projects with the computer. I, C
1i. I like group work. R
2a. We know how to write songs now. C, Ix
2b. I am confident in using GarageBand to record our song. C, Ix
2c. I know I will be able to operate GarageBand for projects of this nature. C, Ix
2d. The song we wrote for this project is important to me because it’s our group effort. Id, R
Conditions
A = Autonomy
R = Relatedness
Type of motivation
I = Intrinsic motivation
Ix = Externally regulated/Introjection
C = Perceived competence Id = Identification/integration
Responses to Statements 1a–1i are based on a 10-point rating scale (α = .89) while responses to statements 2a–2d are based on a 3-point Likert scale (α = .69). Overall, the questionnaire was found to be reliable (13 items; α = .88).
Quantitative information extracted from the pre- and post-surveys were analysed using linear regression to find out variables that predicted the enjoyment of songwriting.
Findings
Findings from Forced-Choice Questions
The responses to the open-ended questions in the questionnaire were coded and classified to record sources of motivation, music learning and 21st century competencies.
In addition to the conduct of surveys, selected students were invited to participate in focus group discussions. From the 322 respondents, focus group discussions were conducted in groups of six to eight students from one class after the project. Each interview spanned between 25 minutes to an hour. The focus group discussions were intended to clarify students’ responses in the open-ended questions in the questionnaire.
Multiple regression analysis was used to determine if items in Question 1 and 2 significantly predicted students’ enjoyment of songwriting. Preliminary assumption testing regarding normality, outliers and multicollinearity was conducted with no violations noted. The results of the regression indicated that five predictors explained 67.9% of the variance (R2 = .68, R2 adj = .68, F(5,603) = 255.27, p = .000). A summary of regression coefficients is presented in Table 2.
Assuming that the predictors for students enjoying the task are motivators for students doing the project, we note that the above are intrinsic motivators. The results suggest that working amongst friends and the perceived authenticity or meaningfulness of task are important motivators.
Table 2: Regression analysis summary for variables predicting students’ enjoyment of song-writing
Findings from the Questionnaire FreeResponse Questions
Students’ responses to free-response questions and interviews were coded and categorised into three themes: motivation, music learning and 21st century competencies.
The themes that arose from the students’ responses to Question 1n, ‘Other reasons why I like to do the MTV Project’ in the post-survey are tabulated in Table 3.
The above results showed that students were motivated if they found the task to be enjoyable, novel and authentic, and if they felt the presence of friendship. These constitute 125 out of 188 total number of occurrences. This is congruous with the previous linear regression results that working in groups and the meaningfulness and/or authenticity of task are important motivators for these students.
Table 3: Themes from responses to Question 1n ‘Other reasons why I like to do the MTV Project’ in the post-survey
Student Learning
Examples of students’ responses when describing the task or approach to be novel and/or meaningful included:
‘It is fun and unlike anything I have done before.’
‘This is something special that we may (have watched) online but have never done it before.’
‘It is a new type of project, hence making it a little more interesting.’
‘It let (sic) us learn things that we have never done before and we could try it ourselves.’
Through the task, students learnt a myriad of music skills and knowledge relating to technical learning of GarageBand operations and music learning at large.
1. Technical learning of GarageBand operations
Students’ responses to Question 3 ‘Which GarageBand features did you manage to learn? How did you use if for your MTV project?’ of the post-survey were coded and categorised into themes as tabulated in Table 4.
The data captured indicated that students were engaged in tasks they assigned to themselves. 124 students reflected that they were sequencing music on GarageBand; they conducted audio recordings (109 occurrences) with the USB microphones provided and used MIDI input with an MIDI controller or through the piano roll (93 occurrences). Other tasks mentioned included adding tracks, applying effects and audio editing. For the few instructions given during music lessons, this scope of learning would not have been possible if it was carried out in a highly structured way with little room for student exploration.
Table 4: Themes from student responses to Question 3 ‘Which GarageBand features did you manage to learn? How did you use it for your MTV Project?’ in the post-survey
21st Century Competencies
2. Music learning
Similarly, students’ responses to Question 4 ‘What were the musical features/components found in your MTV?’ of the post-survey were coded and categorised. The themes surfaced from students’ responses are tabulated in Table 5.
On music learning at large, there were 1065 occurrences where elements of music were mentioned, namely, time, pitch, harmony, texture, form, expression and timbre. Among them, 378 occurrences were about their rhythm, 235 were about their melodies, 200 on which MIDI instrumental sounds (timbre) they chose and 136 on the layering of textures. Since no formal lessons on elements of music were conducted prior to the project, the figures are far greater than the initial reservation. As expected, a lot of performing tasks, mostly singing and singing together, were being carried out.
This study selected two aspects from MOE’s model of 21st century competencies (Annex A) to observe, namely, core values and social emotional competencies (relationships).
Table 5: Themes from students’ responses to Question 4 ‘What were the musical features/ components found in your MTV?’ in the post-survey
Students’ responses regarding their learning experiences were captured in Question 10a ‘What were some challenges you encountered?’ and 10b ‘What did you find out more about your group mates? About yourself?’ of the post-survey. The themes surfaced from students’ responses were coded, categorised and tabulated in Tables 6 and 7, respectively.
In the area of core values, many students reflected that they had exercised resilience, respect and responsibility (103, 95 and 82 occurrences, respectively). It was noted that these three values are related to identification or integration of values because they underlie responses to external controls; these will be discussed later in the focus group discussions. Students also reflected much about their teamwork and leadership skills (101 and 34 occurrences, respectively), which are also components of 21st century competencies, ‘Communication, Collaboration and Information Skills’.
With regard to relationships, students reflected that they have come to appreciate their friends more due to their display of musicality or attitudes (86 and 126 occurrences, respectively) during the project.
Table 6: Themes from students’ responses to postsurvey Question 10a ‘What were some challenges you encountered?’
Table 7: Themes from students’ responses to postsurvey Question 10b ‘What did you find out more about your group mates? About yourself?’
Many students felt that their friends’ positive attitudes were inspiring (126 occurrences). There were also reflections that included knowing their friends better, through the creative and collaborative process.
Findings from Focus Group Discussions
It can be seen that the challenges students face in an informal learning task require them to access their own resources reflected as ‘Core Values’ and traits to overcome. To many students, their motivation would give them the resolve to find these resources.
Some additional perspectives on student motivation were surfaced from the focus group discussions. These included the effect of deadlines and assessment, meaningfulness of task, autonomy and relatedness.
On Deadlines and Grades
Students shared about how deadlines and assessment motivated them.
T: What have you learnt regarding life skills. A lot of you mentioned in your learning that there was a sense of urgency. Can you tell me what was the source of that urgency?
S: Firstly, we were not communicating well, …we were not cooperating… everyone else was having common test and we didn’t bother about the music video project until like the whole class was already really recording and we felt the sense of urgency.
T: So can I say that you are also very serious about completing this because…
S: We want our grades
S: I have to be very honest with you that we want our grades because we trust you.
T: You want a good report, right?
S: Yup, a good report, U grade not nice
On Doing a Meaningful Project
The students went on to talk about how the deadline led them to develop greater initiative. Although the tension arose from the deadline was received as externally regulated motivation, that is, the desire to receive a good report, in the end, they persevered and valued the experience.
The second insight was the perceived meaningfulness of the task. They viewed the task as an opportunity to show appreciation to their teacher during Teachers’ Day Celebration.
S: …we must respect, we must say something, we must, we should say we wanted to do something for the teachers
S: Yup, and our appreciation and our love for her… Show how much we care for her, we did our group work for so long
Gratitude had compelled students to complete the task. The effort put in was seen as a way to express their gratitude. The motivation to put in effort is thus an outcome of the value of the task.
On Autonomy and Relatedness
The third perspective is the sense of autonomy the students had for the task which encouraged their creativity:
T: … (how) do you find working in this project (from the) beginning … to the end (without instructions), did you become clueless or you enjoyed that freedom?
S: Of course, enjoy… I have gotten the freedom to do things that I want to do… so I can write what I imagine into the lyrics
S: I also enjoy the freedom because we don’t have specific rules to follow… we can explore more things…and then try different stuff and add into our music…
S: …no rules then no need to follow, then we put our creativity into our work.
T: Ok, actually there were some rules I have set but you all ignored it
S: Freedom is good if when making the music, right? If restricted,… we we might have made a different tune and everything…
Autonomy also supported relatedness:
S: … because we get to choose our group members (whom) we feel comfortable to work with…
In this group, one member was not part of the friendship circle but mutual consensus was given to accommodate him. At the end of the project, the student reflected,
S: I can choose the people whom I can communicate (with) and I can edit the video and my own stuff without restrictions.
The freedom to choose which group the student could join supported him to contribute to the team. The team also valued his contribution which they articulated in the focus group discussion.
Discussion
On Intrinsic Motivation
This study seeks to understand what aspects of lesson design and learning environment would motivate students in an ICT supported group project facilitated by an informal learning approach.
Firstly, the findings suggest that students are motivated to learn when they find the task novel, meaningful and authentic. The task of song writing, and producing an MTV, via an informal approach was considered a novelty.
The informal approach allowed students to learn independently. This sense of autonomy, coupled with the authentic experience of producing an MTV, gave students greater impetus and engagement to the task. At the same time, students learnt and developed musical skills.
Very often we hear of educators who try to develop tasks and materials that are novel to make learning fun. This is a reminder while trying to maximise the effects of novelty, the tasks and materials would need to be contextualised, to enable meaningful experiences for students.
Secondly, although educators cannot foretell the interest of every student, we can give students autonomy within a given assignment. This could include assigning themselves roles and/or tasks that they enjoy.
Thirdly, the informal learning approach allowed students to choose their team mates whom they feel comfortable communicating with. This provided opportunities for relatedness. The approach builds and capitalises on students’ collaboration, peer feedback, as well as interpersonal communication.
The findings show that contextual purpose of a task motivates students when they find it meaningful. This was a significant variable that motivated students. To further increase its influence, the context and its purpose could be chosen by students themselves. With greater autonomy, they are more likely to value its meaning than when it is developed by the teacher.
Informal learning approaches allow educators to design tasks and learning environments that give students a combination of autonomy in task selection and development, choice of teammates, regulation and methods of learning, outcome expectations and flexibility in schedule. When learners feel competent to contribute to their group tasks, they would be motivated to set higher expectations on themselves and work towards it. In many instances, students set higher expectations for themselves than what the teacher would for them.
On Internalising External Motivation
On Music Learning and 21st Century Competencies
With the informal learning approach, the role of the teacher extends to that of a designer, coach and facilitator. Coupled with the many variables to work with in an informal learning setting, it would be important for educators to develop tools and skills to manage and facilitate learning.
It was observed that students learnt a wide range of music and nonmusic skills in an informal learning setting. This approach gives students the opportunity to be self-directed learners, to make new discoveries beyond the constraints of curriculum time. It is therefore important for educators to realise the importance that life lessons afford, which can be learnt through challenging tasks and situations. However, students would need the time and space to overcome challenges that come along the way.
Not all students found novelty in using ICT for their projects, their perceived competence allowed them to experience positive feelings towards the task. While it is not possible for any teacher to provide all the ICT tools to aid students in their open-ended projects, a common and widely accessible tool serves as a good starting point to facilitate the task. In the case of this study, GarageBand was widely accessible.
Conclusion
This study sought to find out what aspects of lesson design and learning environment facilitate teaching and learning. In addition, it intended to understand student motivation in an ICT supported group project facilitated by an informal learning approach.
Within the structural constraints, this study found that students are more intrinsically motivated when their tasks are novel. They also identified with the value of their tasks and its meaningfulness. This can be enhanced through teacher assigned and/or student suggested contexts, alongside a nurturing learning environment such as that of an informal learning setting. In informal learning settings, opportunities are available to nurture the needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. This would support the internalisation of external values in extrinsic motivation while capitalising on learners’ intrinsic motivation to actualise their inherent potential.
References
The use of ICT may be motivating when students feel competent in using these tools to complete their tasks. Coupled with choice over content and tools, learning through collaborative feedback, it fosters motivation, resulting in enhanced performance.
Students also responded to tension from deadlines and assessments; some were motivated by introjected regulation but they managed to identify with its value retrospectively. Even while working in groups under controlling structures such as deadlines and assessments, students have many opportunities to develop 21st century competencies. It would be interesting to find out more about this transformation in future studies.
To foster motivation in informal learning, teachers would need to be competent in task design and design of learning environments relevant to the task. Learning is regulated by intrinsic motivation and a continuum of internalised extrinsic motivation. With tasks designed to harness multiple sources of motivation, students would be able to develop many music skills, knowledge and life skills.
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Elliot, A. J., & Church, M. A. (1997). A hierarchical model of approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(1), 218–232. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.72.1.218
Evans, P. (2015). Self-determination theory: An approach to motivation in music education. Musicae Scientiae, 19 (1), 65–83. doi:10.1177/1029864914568044
Gagné, M., & Deci, E. L. (2014). The history of self-determination theory in psychology and management. In M. Gagne (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of work engagement, motivation, and self-determination theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780199794911.013.006
Green, L. (2008). Music, informal learning and the school: A new classroom pedagogy. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Renwick, J. M., & Reeve, J. (2012). Supporting motivation in music education. In G. E. McPherson & G. F. Welch (Eds.), Oxford handbook of music education (Vol. 1, pp. 143–162). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199730810.013.0009
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54–67. doi:10.1006/ceps.1999.1020
Ryan, R. M., & La Guardia, J. G. (2000). What is being optimized over development?: A self-determination theory perspective on basic psychological needs across the life span. In S. Qualls & R. Abeles (Eds.), Psychology and the aging revolution (pp. 145–172). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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ANNEX A 21st Century Competencies
CivicLiteracy
Self-directedLearner
Self-Awareness
Self-Management
Core Values
Responsible DecisionMaking Social Awareness Relationship Management
ConcernedCitizen
Critical and Inventive Thinking
ActiveContributor
Source: Ministry of Education, Singapore. https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/education-system/21st-century-competencies
1. Circle on one number, 1 = not true, 10 = absolutely true I like to do the MTV project because…
a. I get to choose my group mates
b. It is a meaningful project
c. I want to learn how MTVs are made
d. My group mates are enthusiastic about it
e.
i. I like to do projects with the computer
j. I like group work
k. I know I could contribute to this project
l.
m.
n. Other reasons why I like to do the MTV project
2. For the following statements, circle the appropriate options: A = agree, D = disagree, N = neutral for your MTV Project
a. We know how to write songs now
b. I am confident in using GarageBand to record our song
c. I know I will be able to operate GarageBand for projects of this nature
d. The song we wrote for this project is important to me because it’s our group effort
e. Given a choice, I would like to go to a different group
Because…
f. Given a choice, I would like to do a different type of project
State what type of project: Because…
3. Which GarageBand features did you manage to learn? How did you use it for your MTV project?
4. What were the musical features/components found in your MTV (please state as many as possible)? For each feature, explain
a. Why was the feature chosen for the project?
b. What have you learnt about it?
c. If you contributed to this feature, how has your confidence in using it in future improved?
Feature 1:
Explain: Feature 2:
Explain:
Feature 3:
Explain:
Feature 4:
Explain:
Feature 5:
Explain: Other features:
Explain:
5. What were some features in your MTV that you have planned to have but was omitted in the end? Why?
6. What were the challenges you faced when you group was making decisions about the music? How did you overcome them and what have you learnt from the experience?
7. Why are MIDI performances copyright free?
Quiz
8. Briefly describe how MTVs/MVs are produced by commercial producers and how is it similar to your MTV project? What did you do differently?
9. Which lessons in the year helped you know more about how MTVs are commercially produced?
10. Write your learning experience below using the guiding questions provided.
a. What were some challenges you encountered? For each challenge, how did you overcome it and what have you learnt from the experience? What values and virtues (e.g. respect, honesty) did you exercise in the process?
b. What did you find out more about your group mates? About yourself?
c. Describe the pace of your learning from the beginning till the end.
d. What would you do differently if you could do this again? Give reasons.
e. Who are some people you should thank, why?
What Happens Next? – Investigating Cumulative Creative Strategies in Developing Critical Thinkers with Grit
Theodora Huang Xinyi, Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary)
Abstract
Introducing the Creative Music Strategy
This research aims to investigate the value of adopting a cumulative approach to musical creation and improvisation as a teaching strategy in general music classrooms, and its impact in developing critical thinkers with grit. A group of 228 students across six Secondary 1 classes from one secondary school were involved in the study, half of which piloted music composition and improvisation lessons that prioritised the cumulative development of musical ideas through cycles of open-ended questioning, adaptation, reflection and critique. Adopting a mixed methods research approach, this investigation compared data from the participants’ self-reported levels of grit, personal innovativeness and creativity, alongside data from lesson recordings, focused group discussions and students’ weekly reflection journals. Paired sample t-tests indicated an increase in self-reported grit levels in one class of the experimental group and an increase in self-reported personal innovativeness in another. From the qualitative data emerged themes in the areas of idea development, creative collaboration and the development of grit through adversity. While the collective data may not conclusively demonstrate the hypothesised correlation, the findings do offer insights into the complexity of grit, as well as affirm the value of a student-centric and cumulative approach to musical composition as a viable pedagogy for the general music classroom.
Keywords: Cumulative creative strategy, music composition, grit, creativity, critical thinking
This research explores a constructivist approach to music teaching, one that celebrates improvisation and composition in the general music classroom as an unceasing creative process borne out of students’
creativity and critical reflection. In particular, this research takes reference from ‘the creative music strategy’, a seven-step instructional model by Nathalie Robinsons, Cindy Bell and Lenore Pogonowski which is said to ‘cultivate the development of our students’ deeper conceptual understandings and music independence by helping them think creatively, critically and analytically, all while they are engaged as active music makers’ (Robinsons, Bell, & Pogonowski, 2011, p. 50).
To a large degree, the creative music strategy has much in common with the pedagogical framework for informal learning in the general music classroom (Robinsons et al., 2011). Built on the same fundamental tenets that support student-centric teaching and learning, both models value student choice and autonomy in a collaborative learning environment, compose the role of the teacher as facilitator and guide, promote active music-making and encourage experimentation and risk-taking.
The key difference is that this model offers scaffolding aimed specifically at developing higher order thinking skills, and that the resultant learning process is inherently and uniquely spiral, iterative and cumulative in nature. In broad strokes, the creative music strategy takes students on a journey of open-ended questioning, brainstorming, personal exploration, improvisation, performance and reflection—at the heart of which lies the question, ‘what happens next?’ Students may embark on the process of musical creation with a small fragment of a musical idea or motif, which could perhaps then be transferred onto a different instrument, or extended, or combined with the musical ideas of their peers, with each subsequent transformation of the idea becoming part of the extended compositional process involving multiple rounds of self and peer critique as well as open-ended questioning. The student’s initial musical idea is thus iterated in a variety of forms, ultimately integrated within the fabric of a larger creative work, an amalgamation of musical ideas contributed by all members of the class community.
Described as a strategy that ‘incorporates the vital teaching tools of creative problem solving and critical thinking skills, the development of higher-order thinking skills, and the establishment of appropriate
Literature Review
context and assessment via interactive dialogue’ (Robinsons et al., 2011, p. 51), this pedagogical model appropriately aligns itself within the Ministry of Education’s (2009) framework of 21st century competencies and desired student outcomes. Yet, it is not often that we require students to produce multiple iterations of a creative task or to extend, elaborate upon and transform their original ideas; instead, it is far more likely that student learning is demonstrated in a one-time performance showcase at the end of a lesson unit, with the teacher providing the necessary feedback before moving swiftly on to the next concept, topic or project.
Beyond its claimed merits in developing creativity and critical thinking skills, this investigation further posits that the iterative nature of the creative process promotes qualities of grit, defined as ‘perseverance and passion for long-term goals’ (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, and Kelly (2007, p. 1087), in its participants. After all, it is in partaking in the manifold transformations of the musical ideas that students experience first-hand how their iterative efforts can contribute and become an integral part of a greater creative product, one that is of a much larger scale and level of complexity than they could have possibly imagined at the outset. The philosophy behind the creative music strategy further supports the notion that there is no finite end to the creative process and that there is always room to grow and develop, thus encouraging students to constantly question, reflect deeply and persevere in their learning.
The creative music strategy is in fact rooted in fundamental principles shared by others in the field of music education research and widely discussed in the existing literature. Much has been written about creative thinking in the general music classroom in recent decades, and many of these, including research surrounding the creative music strategy, advocate for student-centred improvisational and compositional activities as worthwhile endeavours for purposeful musical learning. Hickey and Webster (2001), for example, noted that ‘by creating their own music or musical interpretation, students can sense the power and meaning in music that are beyond the notes
themselves’ (p. 22). Wiggins (2002) similarly observed that ‘bringing creative process into the music classroom is one way of making music learning personally meaningful to students’ (p. 79). More recently, Burnard (2013) recommended that music educators ‘create opportunities for learning from high-quality, open-ended authentic musical experiences from which to acquire confidence and competence; as students sing and play…they will build dispositions that are characteristic of powerful musical learning as it occurs formally and informally, traditionally, and otherwise’ (p. 3).
Furthermore, much of the literature supports the creative music strategy in articulating the value of a constructivist approach to musical creation in the general music classroom setting, one that establishes a safe learning environment in which students feel comfortable in taking risks, and one that encourages student choice and autonomy with the teacher taking the role as a facilitator of the creative process (Burnard, 2000, 2013; Burnard et al. 2006; Csikszentmihalyi & Custodero, 2002; Hickey & Webster, 2001; Odena, 2014; Webster, 2012; Wiggins, 1990, 2002; Wilson, 2001). Embracing such a learning environment, Burnard and Dragovic (2014) offer vivid accounts of how ‘a transformative community of practice, where pupils feel connected and a sense of belonging, provides a family-like setting for a journey of self-discovery and life-changing learning activity’ (p. 19).
Central to the creative music strategy is also the use of open-ended questioning, with the understanding that ‘questions that elicit responses that have more than one right answer genuinely invite students to search possibilities and think ‘outside the box’ (Robinsons et al., 2011, p. 52). This notion too has been discussed at length by others in the field and recognised as an important condition in stimulating creative thinking (Hickey & Webster, 2001; Webster, 2012; Wiggins, 2002). In fact, the line of ‘what next?’ type of questioning proposed by the authors of the creative music strategy is not unlike what others have conceptualized as ‘possibility thinking’ (as cited in Burnard et al., 2006)—a method tested in other curriculum subject areas where, in short, problems posed to students ‘shift from ‘what is this and what does it do?’ to ‘what can I do with this?’ (p. 245). Studies
based on the concept of ‘possibility thinking’ reported favourable outcomes congruent to observations of the creative music strategy at work, and these include ‘children working with ideas collaboratively, recognising one another’s ideas and building these into personal and collective responses to tasks’ (Craft, Cremin, Burnard, Dragovic, & Chappell, 2013, p. 553). Within the field of music education, Hickey and Webster (2001, p. 22), too, recommended posing open-ended musical questions for class discussion such as ‘what would it sound like if the tubas played the melody rather than the flutes?’ or ‘can you imagine this played in the style of a rock band?’, to facilitate divergent and convergent thinking in terms of sound.
The creative music strategy is thus neither an exclusive nor a wholly unique pedagogical method, but is instead one that builds upon established paradigms within general music education and beyond. What distinguishes the creative music strategy from other models is its spiral and cumulative approach that provides appropriate scaffolding to stimulate and guide the creative process through multiple iterations and repetitions of the original idea.
A study involving undergraduate English language students explored how the repetition of ideas in group conversation can lead to new significant points of discussion (Tan, 2010). The pedagogy involved in Tan’s research is perhaps the non-musical parallel to Pognowski’s creative music strategy, in that both suggest that the repetition and iteration of ideas can create pathways to further creative insights. The findings of Tan’s investigation indicated that ‘moving a step further towards something new and significant is facilitated by the process of adding and repeating; without the repetition, addition and reinforcement of significant ideas are unlikely to be triggered’ (p. 259).
This relationship between repetition and the development of creative thinking is further expounded upon within the larger field of cognitive creativity research, or more specifically, in Howard Gruber’s (1989) evolving systems approach to studying and documenting the development of creativity in individuals of high artistic and scientific achievement. Gruber’s evolving systems approach credits deliberate
Research Purpose and Research Questions
practice, among other socio-cultural influences in a creative person’s life, as a key factor in achieving creative success. Citing the case studies of Vincent Van Gogh, Ludwig Beethoven, Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, Gruber argues that it is only through constructive repetition and practice does one develop sufficient mastery of the subject to enable him to solve creative problems within the domain (Gruber, 1989; see also, Brower, 2003; Weisberg, 2006). This investigation thus seeks to extend the current available research and findings in an attempt to draw more concrete connections between iterative and cumulative tasks, and the development of innovative thinking among its participants.
On a separate note, this research additionally attempts to explore possible links between repetitive and cumulative tasks and the development of grit. Recognising grit as a significant predictor of success and accomplishment, Duckworth shared her theory that grit may be developed among students by communicating clearly to them the importance of deliberate practice, and ‘to do things over and over again’ (as cited in Perkins-Gough, 2013, para. 34). By extension of her theory, the repetitive and iterative nature of the creative music strategy may possibly have a positive impact on students’ level of grit.
T his research thus aims to investigate the value of adopting a cumulative approach to musical creation and improvisation as a teaching strategy in general music classrooms and its impact in developing critical thinkers with grit.
Several questions arise from this research framework. What are the factors and conditions within the learning environment that are most conducive for effective implementation of this pedagogy? How does the cumulative effect of repetition and iteration impact creativity? How does the cumulative effect of repetition and iteration impact a person’s level of grit?
Methodology
Commencing in July 2015, this study was conducted over a 6-week period, involving a total of 228 students across six Secondary 1 general music classes from one secondary school in Singapore. Three of the
six classes piloted a cumulative approach to musical composition and improvisation activities, forming the experimental group of the study. This group comprised two Express-stream classes with 40 students each, and one Normal (Academic)-stream class of 28 students. The control group consisted of the remaining three classes, who pursued musical composition and improvisation too, albeit without employing any cumulative strategies. All classes in the control group comprised students from the Express stream. The randomised class allocation of students across the Secondary 1 intake of students allowed for a random distribution of students in terms of academic and musical ability to exist across all Express-stream classes.
All participants were guided through the process of musical composition in a series of lessons adapted from the seven-step instructional model of open-ended questioning, brainstorming, personal exploration, improvisation, performance and reflection. Keeping true to the spirit of this pedagogical framework and bearing in mind the strong advocacy for constructivist approaches to musical creation processes in the available literature, the music lessons in this study sought to prioritise student autonomy and choice within a safe learning environment, where music-making is facilitated through improvisation and group performance. To ensure fairness and consistency in lesson delivery, all classes were led by the same teacherresearcher.
The key difference with the experimental group is the inherent cumulative nature within its pedagogical design. Upon creating an original musical motif, students in this group, triggered by the oftenposed question, ‘what happens next?’, are encouraged to pursue the idea further, to explore a variety of adaptations and extensions, and to constantly pause to reflect and critique their work. The compositional project spanning the 6-week lesson unit can thus be seen as a multistage process, where students first work individually, then in pairs, followed by larger groups, with each stage growing in scale and complexity while repeating and iterating the original musical ideas manifold. On the other hand, students in the control group were not given any instruction to utilise or to build on earlier musical ideas.
Results
Instead, students were free to interpret the open-ended compositional task independently within the groups of their choice.
This study adopts a mixed methods research approach to provide a broader and more holistic understanding of the cumulative approach to music composition and how it affects the participants’ levels of grit and creativity. A survey instrument (Appendix 1) was constructed based on self-report measures of grit (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009); this measure has been used and validated by Miksza and Tan (2015). The survey also included two additional constructs: personal innovativeness and creativity, both of which were adapted from Dawson, Tan, and McWilliam (2011). The survey was administered to all participants once at the beginning and another time at the end of the 6-week project to compare students’ self-reported levels of grit, personal innovativeness and creativity before and after their involvement in the study. At the same time, qualitative data retrieved from the lesson recordings, focused group discussions and students’ weekly reflection journals were transcribed, coded and analysed to yield insights into the participants’ behaviour, as well as their perspectives and attitudes towards the creative process undertaken.
Paired samples t-tests were conducted to compare students’ self-reported levels of grit, personal innovativeness and creativity, before and after the treatment period. Findings indicated that for the Normal (Academic) class in the experimental group, students’ self-reported levels of personal innovativeness were significantly higher after participating in the compositional project using the cumulative approach, t(28) = 2.13, p = 0.04, with medium effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.40). The means for the students’ self-reported levels of personal innovativeness were 23.45 before the treatment period and 25.14 after the treatment period. Findings further indicated that for one of two Express-stream classes in the experimental group, students’ self-reported levels of grit were significantly higher after participating in the compositional project using the cumulative approach, t(39) = 2.72, p = 0.01, with medium effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.43). The means for the students’ self-reported levels of grit were 25.5 before the treatment period and 26.7 after the treatment period. All other results were statistically non-significant.
‘Growing’ Ideas and Making Musical Connections
The qualitative data retrieved from the lesson recordings, focused group discussions and students’ weekly reflection journals, were transcribed, coded and analysed. Three major themes emerged from the data, namely, ‘growing ideas’ and making musical connections, creative collaboration and the development of grit.
The qualitative data suggests that students who adopted the cumulative approach to musical composition underwent a more thorough, rigorous and thoughtful process of idea development, one that allowed for greater depth of musical exploration.
‘It was like letting a seed grow—you plant a seed, and let the seed grow slowly. And when more and more people come in, it’s like adding fertiliser.’
(Student X, experimental group Class A-Express)
‘We played our melody quite a bit…and we just built so much off of it.’
(Student Y, experimental group Class B-Express)
These quotes from students who participated in the study using the cumulative approach to musical composition encapsulate one of the major themes that emerged from the experimental group—the notion of developing an idea through a variety of means such that the end result takes on a form of a much larger scale, complexity and meaning, than its original seed. This is precisely the crux of the cumulative creative strategy.
In response to the trigger question, ‘what happens next?’ students ‘grew’ their original ideas in diverse forms. Some tried merging distinct melodic ostinati, using one as the counterpoint to the other. Many others explored extending their ideas, for instance by transferring their melodies onto other instrument types, or adding rhythmic and bass parts, or developing a structural construct for
Creative Collaboration
their musical work. There were also examples of students adapting their ideas for practical reasons; for example, one group decided to add a steady drum beat to help everyone in the group feel the musical pulse, and in another instance, students chose to simplify their melodic idea so that other group members could perform it competently. In many instances, the final creative product was a combination of a number of these processes and more, with some going as far as to include dramatic and theatrical elements in their performance showcase. While the theme of idea development emerged from both experimental and control sets of data, it was decidedly and naturally more prominent in that from the participants using the cumulative approach to musical composition, who frequently cited and described the many iterations and transformations of their idea.
Furthermore, the data presents evidence of those in the experimental group pursuing their ideas with greater rigour, depth and musicality. This is perhaps most clearly reflected in the level of detail and clarity of the composer statements by those in the experimental group, as compared to their peers in the control group. In particular, many groups who used the cumulative approach developed elaborate narratives as the basis of their musical compositions and were able to apply and describe specific musical concepts relating to tempo, dynamics, pitch, expression and timbre to reflect shifts in the mood or to create contrasts between sections in their narrative. By contrast, the musical products and composer statements by the participants in the control group were generally shorter and lacking in musical detail (see Appendix 2 for extracts of composer statements).
Findings further suggest that students who adopted the cumulative approach to musical composition experienced a more democratic and collaborative creative process, with their level of success on the task less dependent on their prior musical experience and background.
‘I managed to find a very good melody to start with, and then I called the rest of the group to help…I managed to give them parts to play.’
(Student P, control group Class C-Express)
Instances, such as the example cited in the above quote, in which a clear musical leader emerged from within the student collaborative team, were distinctly more prevalent in the classes that did not use the cumulative approach to musical composition. Within the control group of classes, more than half of the student collaborative teams relied on the direction from one or two informally appointed musical leaders, who became responsible for creating the musical motifs and subsequently assigning parts for other group members to perform. In all of such cases, the musical leaders were ones with prior musical experience and training.
‘More heads means more ideas, so we get to be more creative.’
(Student Z, experimental group Class A-Express)
‘I don’t think I can think alone.’
(Student J, experimental group Class B-Express)
In contrast, students who adopted the cumulative approach to musical composition described their creative process as more collaborative in nature, with most if not all of the members in the team involved in idea generation and decision-making. As opposed to carrying out the musical concept and direction of just one or two of their team members, students in this experimental group described how each of their team members’ ideas and musical motifs from the individual and pair-work stages were thoughtfully combined, adapted and developed through the progressive stages of the compositional process, resulting in a creative product that represented an amalgamation of
everyone’s ideas and contributions. Favouring the group work approach to the compositional task, these students generally found the diversity of ideas from various perspectives useful and constructive. It is also interesting to note that most students interviewed from this experimental group felt that prior musical experience or training was not necessarily a prerequisite to succeed in this project (Appendix 3).
Contrary to the hypothesis of this research project, grit and its related qualities such as patience and perseverance, in fact emerged more extensively in the discussions with students who did not adopt a cumulative approach to musical composition.
A student’s response to a situation where his group mates lost interest in the task:
‘They didn’t want to play, and I just kept hitting and hitting and hitting [the instrument to find the right melody on my own].’
(Student Q, control group Class C-Express)
A student’s reflection and key take-away from the creative process:
‘We learnt about perseverance. If one person gives up halfway… then the music has to restart again.’
(Student R, control group Class D-Express)
As illustrated in the quotes above, grit manifested in a variety of contexts but predominantly in the face of challenges and difficulty that arose during the creative process. Most often, students described how they had to exercise patience with uncooperative teammates, while at other times, they recounted unsuccessful attempts at creating a melodic motif or idea that they liked, and how they had to keep trying. Generally, the students who did not adopt the cumulative approach in musical composition indicated a greater level of difficulty in completing the assigned composing task as compared to their peers
Grit
in the experimental group, eventually relying mostly on the direction of one or two informally appointed musical leaders within the team. Quotes that capture this sentiment include the following:
‘We tried to create something original, but it didn’t sound right, so we left that [to improvise on a familiar tune instead].’
(Student T, control group Class C-Express)
‘It was difficult to combine all the instruments together to compose music about one word’.
(Student P, control group Class C-Express)
The qualitative data thus suggests a positive correlation between grit and adversity. In other words, it was in the face of a crisis, be it in terms of managing interpersonal relationships or in making group decisions, that students reported the need for perseverance and fortitude in order to achieve their creative goals.
At the same time, a closer look at the qualitative data yielded another perspective and understanding of grit. While grit was not captured in words through the conversations with those in the experimental group, a number of these students did, arguably, exhibit grit through their actions and behaviours. In particular, students in the Expressstream classes who adopted the cumulative approach to musical composition, visibly motivated and proud of their achievements at each stage of the composing process, made earnest requests to extend the lesson module so as to allow them more time to work on the final stages of the project. These students demonstrated grit in their willingness to devote additional time and energy into perfecting their craft and fulfilling their artistic vision.
As outlined above, the quantitative data of this research does not fully corroborate what is suggested by the qualitative data. Before proceeding further, it is useful to first acknowledge some of the limitations of the research design. Firstly, the quantitative data relied exclusively on
Creativity
self-report instruments to measure the participants’ levels of grit, personal innovativeness and creativity. The limitations of self-report modes of measurement have been widely discussed in the field of psychological assessment (e.g. Lucas, & Baird, 2006; Paulhus, 1991), primarily taking issue with its vulnerability to response biases, among other limiting factors. A second area of concern is the brevity of the study’s duration, which may not have been long enough a runway to observe significant changes in the participants’ level of grit or creativity. After all, these are personal qualities that are complex and may possibly have taken a longer time to develop and manifest. Finally, it must be acknowledged that human behaviour is invariably shaped by external influences and experiences, and that various concurrent factors outside of the music classroom and beyond the control of the research design may have also had an effect in individual participants’ grit or creativity levels.
Limitations aside, the quantitative data gathered through an analysis of means across a large sample population has it merits in providing a broad perspective on the developmental outcome of the cumulative approach to musical composition. At the same time, recognising the above constraints, a collective view of both the quantitative and qualitative data is recommended in order to attain a balanced understanding of the effect of the cumulative approach to musical composition in the development of creativity and grit among the research participants.
While the qualitative data appears to indicate that the cumulative approach to musical composition facilitated a deeper creative thought processes, particularly among its Express-stream participants, there was no statistically significant change in this group of students’ selfreported levels of personal innovativeness or creativity. One possible reason to explain this phenomenon could be that students had already possessed relatively high self-reported levels of creativity and personal innovativeness before the study, leaving less room for a noticeable difference in creativity levels at the end of the 6-week research period. It may also be possible that these students yielded to their natural human tendency to provide answers that make the respondent look
good, a response bias termed by experts in the field of psychological assessment as socially desirable responding (Paulhus, 1991, p. 17). The artificially inflated pre-study quantitative results caused by this response bias may then have obscured any real change in creativity levels after the treatment period. Quantitative data aside, the qualitative data is in itself rich in evidence that support the existing literature that affirms the role of open-ended questioning in stimulating creative thinking (Burnard et al., 2006; Craft et al. 2013; Hickey & Webster, 2001; Webster, 2012; Wiggins, 2002).
The hypothesis of this investigation relied on the underlying assumption that the first-hand experience of being part of an iterative creative process that succeeded would encourage the participants to adopt a growth-seeking and persevering attitude towards other areas of their work. The quantitative data from one of the two Express-stream classes of the experimental group supports this hypothesis, and students in this class also demonstrated grit in the way that they were motivated to devote additional time and energy into bringing their creative ideas to new levels of excellence. Reasons behind why the second Express-stream class in the experimental group did not yield similar quantitative results to support the hypothesis though are not so clear, as this study could not account for all potentially confounding variables.
At the same time, the research findings from the qualitative data seem to suggest an alternative paradigm of our understanding of grit, one that associates grit with experiencing adversity. As described above, it was in the face of challenge and difficulty that students became conscious of the need to be patient with each other, to persevere and to keep trying. It can thus be argued that the step-by-step nature of the cumulative strategy in fact provided some form of scaffolding for the students, facilitating the composing process and making it easier and more enjoyable for the participants. In this way, grit inadvertently emerged as a stronger theme in the control group, whose creative process was considerably less smooth-sailing. Considering the data from all sources of this study, one may infer that grit does not develop in a linear fashion, but instead manifests in a variety of ways and is shaped by all forms of human experience.
Grit
(Academic) Class
A Closer Look at the Normal
‘What Happens Next?’
The research findings from the Normal (Academic) class in the experimental group were to some extent disparate from the Expressstream classes, and hence, warrant a more in-depth look at how this specific group of students responded to the cumulative approach to musical composition. In particular, the Normal (Academic) class of students were the only class within the experimental group that reported a positive change in personal innovativeness after the treatment period. Yet, based on a review of their musical and creative progress at each stage of the composition process, these students were in fact less successful than their peers in the Express stream at creating and developing original melodic motifs, with a number of teams abandoning their project altogether. Instead, many teams in this class turned to familiar tunes and riffs from popular songs and decided to extend these existing melodic ideas in their own ostinato-based covers or adaptations. In other words, students in the Normal (Academic) stream found difficulty in creating original musical ideas, but were still able to apply the cumulative creative strategy to extend, adapt and ‘grow’ existing ones.
Arguably, the cumulative approach to musical composition served as a helpful form of scaffolding that enabled these students to demonstrate creativity and innovation in the development and arrangement of melodic motifs, even if these were not originally of their own creation. Students in the Normal (Academic) class reported lower levels of personal innovativeness prior to the lesson study compared to their more academically able peers in the Express stream, yielding a more noticeable change in this measurement post-treatment.
The results of this investigation are surprising and do not conclusively support the hypothesis that a cumulative approach to musical composition effects a positive influence on grit and creativity. Instead, the research findings have provided insights to grit as a complex product of a range of human experiences, including adversarial circumstances as well as motivating factors. With groups of varying student profiles responding differently to the cumulative approach to musical composition, the research findings also suggest that factors
such as academic achievement and existing personal attitudes affect one’s receptivity to the pedagogy.
Perhaps more importantly, merits of the cumulative creative strategy emerged beyond the scope of grit and creative thinking. The findings have demonstrated that the process of building upon existing musical ideas allows for more meaningful musical thought and analysis, as the participants were less occupied with finding the right notes to play and instead spend more time thinking about sound and applying musical concepts. Inherent in the repetitive and iterative nature of the creative process are also the multiple rounds of self and peer critique, which in turn further deepens critical thought. At the same time, the cumulative creative process is not necessarily a difficult one, for the step-by-step progression provides appropriate scaffolding in incremental amounts to pace the learner and also trigger open-ended thinking that stimulate idea development along the way. The findings have also shown that the cumulative creative strategy democratises the creative process by facilitating collaboration and allowing every team member’s idea to be valued as an intrinsic part of the creative product. In addition, the cumulative approach to musical composition encourages students to perceive composing as an unending creative process, rather than a finite task, and hence, can be seen as a more authentic learning experience.
The feedback from students in the experimental group about the pedagogy was also generally positive. They noted how the multi-stage process made composition more organised and a less daunting task than what they had imagined it to be, and that they appreciated the diversity of ideas that arose from the collaboration with their peers (Appendix 3). Others further commented on how they found the composing process enjoyable and rewarding, as well as how they pursued certain trails of their musical imagination ‘just for fun’ (Appendix 3).
For a more comprehensive, and hopefully conclusive, study into the impact of this pedagogy in developing critical thinkers with grit, it is recommended that the investigation be replicated, perhaps over a more extended research period to observe changes in grit and creativity levels
Acknowledgements
over a longer time frame. At this juncture, just as the cumulative creative strategy necessitates moments of pause and reflection to consider ‘what happens next’, this present investigation rests here having acknowledged some of its limitations in the research design as well as having demonstrated fair merits of the cumulative approach to musical composition as a viable pedagogy for the general music classroom.
Deepest gratitude to the following organisations and individuals for being a part of this immense learning journey, and for making this research possible:
School leaders, staff and student participants of Fairfield Methodist School (Secondary) for their unwavering support.
Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the Arts (Ministry of Education, Singapore) and the National Arts Council for their generous provision of research funding and organisational backing.
Dr Lum Chee Hoo and Dr Leonard Tan, of the National Institute of Education, Singapore, for their encouraging mentorship, guidance and words of wisdom.
Mr Gerald Lim and Ms Ruth Lim for their kind assistance with research data management and transcription.
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Appendix 1
Pre-Activity and Post-Activity Survey Instrument
GRIT
New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from previous ones.
Setbacks don’t discourage me.
I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.
I am a hard worker.
I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one.
I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete.
I finish whatever I begin.
I am diligent.
PERSONAL INNOVATIVENESS
I am generally cautious about accepting new ideas.
I rarely trust new ideas until I see the vast majority of people around me accept them.
I am usually one of the last people in my group to accept something new.
I am reluctant to adopt new ways of doing things until I see them working for others.
I am challenged by ambiguities and unsolved problems.
I must see other people using new innovations before I will consider them.
I am challenged by unanswered questions.
I often find myself sceptical/wary of new ideas.
(Continued )
Questions
CREATIVITY
I am spontaneous.
I am imaginative.
I am creative with ideas.
I am inventive.
I find it stimulating to be original in my thinking or behaviour.
(Student Z, experimental group Class A-Express)
Appendix 2
Composer Statements Extracted from Students’ Final Reflection Journal (Experimental Classes)
Your musical composition attempted to express an image of clouds. Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of the clouds
Experimental Class A-Express
It is still and silent
Light and peaceful
Peaceful, slow-moving clouds
The clouds are light and fluffy, followed by light drizzle and then, a thunderstorm
The composition is trying to describe a peaceful white cloud, drifting through the early morning sky
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Monotonous
Don’t really know
We added a very ‘happy’ type of melody
We ranged from a slow tempo with light sounds to a fast and heavy sound with clapping and hitting to vary a thunderstorm and heavy rain
The melody is very slow and catchy, giving off a peaceful aura. The higher pitches carrying the melody also helped to further emphasised it
Light smooth Playing
It rains lightly, but it is very fast. It slowly becomes really heavy
Calm and cool
Heavy storm, then peace
Still and silent
Stormy, thundering, approaching
It is lively and fast
This image was an image of passing white clouds
Slow, gentle and soft
The music must be soothing and calm
Relaxed and smooth
Fast, cheerful, energetic
We made it really fast
We used the drums to create a steady and slow beat
Fast and loud, then slow and steady
Monotonous beat
We increased the pace and the volume of the composition in order to portray the approaching of the storm
We changed the dynamics throughout the performance
The music was lively with a standard rhythm on the drums
By playing the notes in a slow and steady beat
We wanted to make the music calm
We tried to make it sound holy so we used xylophones and it was slow, smooth and relaxed to make it sound like heaven
Tempo, melody, rhythm
(Continued )
Your musical composition attempted to express an image of clouds. Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of the clouds
Soft and slow
Soft and gentle
We were trying to express storm clouds that were going to represent a storm coming
Peaceful, soft
We were trying to express the unpredictability of clouds
Clouds are smooth and fluffy. They are also quite peaceful as there is not much disturbance in the sky
The clouds are drifting fast and from light drizzle to heavy rain
Drifting, a little sad and moving
Graceful, peaceful and calm yet reflects happiness
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
We played it soft and contrapuntal
By harmonising together in rhythm and beat
We played the music loudly to represent the thunder in the storm clouds. We also played it fast and increased the tempo to show that a storm is coming
We play our instruments softly and gently, and not too quickly, with some pauses in between
Some parts were gentle and some parts were rough
We wanted a gentle feel to the texture as clouds are gentle
It was meant to flow from low to high in terms of texture and melody by using different kinds of instruments from the same family
The melody and background music
The pattern was repeatedly going on in Legato, which symbolised the gracefulness of the clouds. It was played quite softly to express peacefulness. To add on, the speed of the ‘clouds’ remained constant at piano and did not change. The instruments used were did not project loud volumes and thus reflected the calmness of the clouds. It was also played in the major key, which showed happiness
It was lively and light
Water gains heat and evaporates into water vapor. This is seen in me (Raelee) using the mallet to hit the floor. Water vapour then rises and loses in heat in a process called condensation. This can be seen in Xin Rou hitting the drum in a constant beat. Condensation above the earth’s surface forms clouds. Nicole and Gladys using the xylophones show the slow process of the precipitation and the rain falling. The clouds are slow and steady, pouring rain in a constant speed
We tried to use notes that sounded light and not dull, and the tempo was quite fast to show that it was lively
Our group intends to show the importance of water and the water cycle. At the start of our performance, Nicole starts by playing a constant beat. This beat sounds like water dripping from a tap and like water drizzling from the clouds. The rhythm is meant to sound slow and give a rough texture
Your musical composition attempted to express an image of clouds. Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of the clouds
The cloud is drifting with a sense of nostalgia
The cloud is drifting with a sense of nostalgia, representing a short and sweet melody, just like how the sun shines a bit before being covered up by the clouds. It shows the joy and happiness one feels while thinking about the past
Clouds are like soft soothing pillows floating in the air, it gives of a relaxed mood and also brings us into a drowsy mood. But not only does clouds have a good side, the devil aide the clouds hide is the thunder and storm. slowly the gentle mood of the music changes and there is a sense of suspense and tension that fills our music, anticipation rises and then thunder strikes as if waking up from a terrible dream then pitter patter the rain falls and hits the ground splashing up and then a storm is ahead and lastly lightning strikes
Debussy composed the original piece so we took some ideas and his style and period
Peaceful, calm, soft like clouds
Ms. Hwang did say at the start that the original piece was composed by the 20th Century impressionism composer Debussy, so we took some idea from that period. Most pieces composed during that period were rather dreamy so we took that to mind. It is a happy and cheerful piece representing a cloud on a sunny day
It has an expression that represents happiness and it also gives others the feeling of being very happy, excited, joyful, etc.
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
We aimed to achieve an image of the feeling of freedom and happiness of clouds drifting peacefully through the sky, providing shade to the earth from the sun’s glaring rays
We had the bass xylophone that we used to play bass. Each pair played it using different range in harmony to achieve a ‘running’ and sweet melody, although it was short lived, just like how the sun shines for a while before being covered up by the cloud-it shows the freedom and happiness
We use the loud sounds of the ‘drums’ as the soft sound of bouncing clouds with the little twinkle from the gelenstians and after that, we slowly increase the speed of drums and then comes in the thunder strikes three times with the repeated movement on the instrument three times from left to right then right to left and then a little fast sound of the twinkles again to begin the pitter patter and the sound of hands hitting the ground to make the rain heavier and then lastly the drums come in as a lighting strike
It was slow and had some decrescendo at the end
We managed to use Legato to create the image of clouds as soft and calm
Our musical composition was simple and light like clouds. The dynamics slowly became softer, representing clouds drifting off. Our piece was also rather short to represent the drifting of clouds. When you first see the drifting of clouds, it will be rather prominent. However, after a while the cloud would drift off behind a tree or even a building, making the illusion that it has slowly disappeared
We created a song that has a high tempo, and with a fast rhythm
(Continued )
Appendix 2
Composer Statements Extracted from Students’ Final Reflection Journal (Experimental Classes)
Your musical composition attempted to express an image of clouds. Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of the clouds
Experimental Class B-Express
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Happy Rhythm
Peaceful and melodious
Thunderstorm, different shapes
We described an incoming rain. In the beginning, we expressed the clouds as normal clouds. Then, we expressed it by increasing the speed to show that it was raining
There was a thunderstorm passing by which then followed by a calm rain
V. v. good
Giving it a gentle and pleasant rhythm
Thunderstorm and then followed by a calm image of clouds
Tempo, speed
The tempo was fast first and then slow
The drummy thing instrument
At first it is soft and gentle and later it is loud and hard We wanted to express a storm by increasing the tempo and loudness
Clouds represent calmness and our group tried to bring that in the best we could through our piece. We tried to make our composed piece as calm as possible like the representation of clouds
It starts as a normal, calm cloud, then a thunderstorm rolled in and lightning strike, which then stops shortly afterwards
I loved the rhythm of my group’s music
Happy and very exciting
The clouds are described as rainy, dark clouds; starting slow and suddenly getting fast
The clouds were drifting through the wind and slowly they started to get heavier and heavier until it started raining
Tempo, melody
Instrument variety and melody
We couldn’t think of any rhythm and we just put random rhythms of music together and combined it
Very good
The rhythm was slow to fast, the melody was like rain drops; lightly tapping
The main melody was getting faster and faster to signify the clouds getting heavier. The background notes were let to ring out so as to show that the clouds were drifting. When the last note was played it meant the start of the rain
Your musical composition attempted to express an image of clouds. Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of the clouds
Slow, soft and calm
It is really happy and dances
Light and fluffy
Quiet and peaceful
Tranquil that can become harsh within seconds
It floats in the sky, it can’t be pin-pointed and it slips through your hands like liquid or air because it is
They are emotionally happy and calm. In action they are slow and peaceful. They have random rounded shapes. They were also more high-pitched noises that we interpreted as raindrops
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
We wanted to express with some texture by adding different instruments
We used different types of instrument
Slow with some tempo
Rhythm and texture
I wasn’t there but if I was:
I would try to merge the beating of the drums with the xylophone. It would represent the harshness but calmness of the sky’s which the clouds flows in
We used a medium paced repeated pattern. For our melody we played CDEEDC, DEFFED, EFGGFE, FGAAGE. The other pair played the same melody put backwards. For texture, some of us played louder, and some of us played softer. Our tempo four counts were bar. For our instruments, we used one metallophone and one xylophone
Clouds pass by in a gentle, smooth and light way.
Clouds do not pass by in a vicious, angry or fast way. They are like a fluffy gumball. To me, they represent dreams and happiness
A melodious and happy tune to set a nice and comfortable emotion
The clouds are supposed to be rain clouds. It is to be light as it floats in the air
We wanted to describe that there are weather that is calm but yet there are also storms that are loud and fast
The clouds were calm and gentle
It is soft, slow and gentle
Happy and big lumps of white clouds
We wanted to create a very gentle and light sound, hence we did not hit on the instrument too hard, but we gently hit on the instrument. We tried using notes that match well together and create a very peaceful and soft sound. We wanted others to get a very gentle and light feeling
Rhythm, melody
We were using the higher pitched instrument for rain drops and the lower one for expressing how the clouds are free and light
We wanted to use the drums and cow bells to express the image of a loud and fast storms and the rest for the calm after the storm
A slow-ish tempo and higher notes
We intended to play the music softly and slowly
We wanted to make use of dynamics and melody
(Continued )
Your musical composition attempted to express an image of clouds. Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of the clouds
Graceful, slow paced
In our song, at first you get the feeling that you are floating on clouds flying. And then, it gets mysterious, there is a thunder storm it gets louder and louder until it stops. Then there is the silence after the storm
White clouds passing by very fast day by day in a fast way. The clouds are not thunder clouds so the sounds are not low or slow
It has a very soothing feeling
It started to be calm at first with beautiful clouds. However, thunders roared and it rained heavily. But, after a while, the clouds became nicer again
It is light. It is cool (not warm)
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Steady tempo
Through guitar xylophones, and drums they give us a sense of dynamic
The clouds passing by day by day recorded and put in fast motion in a video. The tempo of the music is fast and the sounds of the instrument does not last long in one hit
Rhythm and texture
With calm and solid instruments such as the Djembe
Have a rhythm
Its light and cool Rhythm
Appendix 2
Composer Statements Extracted from Students’ Final Reflection Journal (Experimental Classes)
Your musical composition attempted to express an image of clouds. Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of the clouds
Experimental Class A-N(A)
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Sleep It is very soothing, it is a music that sends people to sleep
Stars
The light of the night and calmness.
Clouds It is meant to be a calm piece
Breeze Peaceful
Clouds
Breeze
It is from Taylor Swift so it is blank space
Clouds and the stars
Clouds Relaxed and calmed
Clouds Calm
Sleep Tired
Sleep
Clouds
Clouds
Calm peaceful sleeping triangle
This image is like moving faster and faster like the clouds in the sky. This musical work was from Taylor Swift, blank space
[1] They were displaying a very relaxed emotion while playing the music
[2] Easy to play cloud music
Clouds Emotion and action
Stars
It’s a repeating pattern
Breeze Wind-like
Stars
Its actually a random mix that sounds likes stars
Clouds Happy and bouncy
Clouds Very peaceful and calm
Pop
It was pop because it was played after blank space. it was also quite smooth as the instruments were quiet
Clouds Smooth and happy
(Continued )
Your musical composition attempted to express an image of clouds. Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of the clouds
Stars
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
There was a constant speed and repetition
Clouds It is like I am in a park looking at the park and the clouds is smiling at me
Breeze Soft and calm
Stars
We made tempo slower
Pop It is like repeating the pattern again and creating new rhythm
Appendix 2
Composer Statements Extracted from Students’ Final Reflection Journal (Control Classes)
Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of this image
Control Class C-Express
It must be peaceful and soothing
Stars are twinkling and are light-sounding
Calm and slow
It is what you see in the sky at night? It is a regular geometric figure
Nice, very nice
Sleepy, peaceful
Angry, stormy clouds
Sparkly and shiny
Extremely random, fast paced
Stars are bright and happy, making it light-hearted
Soft and relaxing
Peaceful, quiet, rested
The music is rhythmatic and calm
Rainy cloud, stormy and angry
It is very simple and it is calming
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
By playing slowing and the low notes
We tried to play the higher notes of the instrument and chose the melody in a repeated pattern
Soft, with a clear melody line. we kept the melody slow and sometimes we added a bass melody line
We tried to play the nursery rhyme: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but with a twist. Two of us were playing normally, while one of us was playing it Staccato
Slow rhythm, nice melody
The state of being sleepy and peaceful
Making it rain
High notes
Tempo, dynamics, rhythm
We tried to play the higher notes of the instrument to create the light and happy feeling. We also used repeated patterns to represent them
We played the instrument
Slow, gentle, rhythmic
We wanted it to be rhythmatic
We decided to express that the clouds were angry and it was raining heavily, thus our music was loud and fast
We played ‘twinkle twinkle little stars’ as it was a music piece that was about the stars. ‘twinkle twinkle little stars’ sounds very simple and reminds us of our childhood. It is very nostalgic and many of us have heard it when we were young and our parent would have sang it to us when we were young
(Continued )
Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of this image
It is calming and bright
Stormy clouds and rainy clouds and angry emotion
Relaxing and calm
Gentle and soothing
Stormy clouds, angry
Sleep is sometimes followed by dreams. Dreams are fun and exciting
It was soft?
It has sharp and short sound, kind of high pitches
Their movement and their interactions with the environment
Calm, relaxed
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
We thought that stars were very relaxing to the eye and decided to give it a soft melody
We decided to express the clouds as our music was loud like clouds in a storm or rain falling down in an angry emotion
To use a melody of a slow and constant tempo, making use of the higher notes
Playing soft gentle notes that has soothing melody
By making the making the tempo fast and loud, it refers to the stormy and rainy clouds
Our music was upbeat and fast-paced
There was two different rhythms and melodies and tempos and instruments
We wanted to start with soft music then getting louder and end with a loud bang. The melody was created by Alvin ng
It is supposed to be quite calm and peaceful. It is used to portray the qualities of clouds
By setting a tempo that describes calmness
Clouds represent a state of gloom, depression and sadness We used rhythm and melody
Sleep, followed by dreams, can be interesting and fun
The piece we composed was upbeat and fast-paced
State or cause of glooms, suspicions, trouble or worry It meant to sound awesome
Stormy clouds and rainy clouds and angry emotion
It is very soothing to listen to our composition. It is also very relaxing to just lean back and listen to the high pitch notes of our composition
Clouds are fluffy and beautiful
We decided to express the clouds as our music was loud like clouds in a storm or rain falling down in an angry emotion
We wanted to play high pitch notes to create the effect of very soothing music
Repeated patterns
Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of this image
Light rhythm, soft melody, slow tempo
Stars are light and airy, such is expressed through short light staccato beats contrasted with long notes representing the tranquil night sky
Light, peaceful, white and cloudy
Sad and emotional
Stars give us a very gentle and soothing relaxation
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Starts at a fast beat then turns slow at the end
We intended to make the music light and soothing but also provide the listeners with a light feel
Lively, breezy, easy-going
Slow and soothing
We intended to express this image through the melody and rhythm of music. We decided that melody fits the context of the image of stars and we added rhythm because it has the effect of making us feel familiar to the beat and get comfortable listening to it
Clouds can symbolise peacefulness, and drifting around the sky
Peaceful, soft and harmonic
Create a peaceful mood by playing the notes at a slow pace. We intended the music to be soft and gentle
The rhythm was not too fast and the volume was not to loud
(Continued )
Appendix 2
Composer Statements Extracted from Students’ Final Reflection Journal (Control Classes)
Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of this image
Control Class D-Express
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Clouds Texture, dynamics
Thunder Loud fast
Spam I dunno
Stars Soft to loud
Clouds We just wanted to music to sound rocky
Clouds We played a continuous tempo and the tempo has a rounded sound and calm and cool tempo which brings out the calm beginning and then we added more rhythm to the music
Clouds Rhythm, melody, texture
Breeze Ostinato
Stars Rhythm
Clouds Getting softer to louder, getting faster, layering
Sleep Slow
Clouds Melody. We used ‘eating bananas gives us energy’ and used it every time a person enters into the performance
Breeze By the rhythm
Clouds Rhythm, Instrument
Sleep Instrument
Sleep Melody
Sleep Melody
Stars We used different rhythms and melody to the sound and used different instruments to express this image
Breeze All the rhythm, tempo and instrument
Stars Repeating the music
Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of this image
Breeze
Stars and sleep
Breeze
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Rhythm in the melody played with texture and tempo
We wanted the image to be expressed in a gentle, light, lullaby-like melody and repeating it over and over to show the calmness of the night sky (stars) and peace when we sleep
We played it from slow to fast, than back to slow again
Clouds The song was fast and loud. There was a constant rhythm
Stars The rhythm
Clouds Soft and slow
Clouds It is a repeating pattern
Clouds Soft and slow, with repeated rhythm
Clouds Rain and thunder
(Continued )
Appendix 2
Composer Statements Extracted from Students’ Final Reflection Journal (Control Classes)
Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of this image
Control Class E-Express
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Powerful Use different instruments
Emotion and shape
Light and slow
The pattern
Relaxing and calm
Twinkly and sparkly
Relaxing and calm
Twinkly and sparkly
Very relaxing and calm, relaxing instruments
Calm, incoming and ever-changing
Very relaxing and calming
Peace and tranquillity
#Dreams
#Tired
#Rest
The image is mystical and broad but slightly repetitive.
When looking at the image it gives you a calming feeling
Melody
Make it light and slow
The texture
With increasing decreasing tempo
Staccato
With increasing and decreasing tempo
We make it staccato-ish yet not too upbeat as you can see stars at night when you are tired and sleepy
We tried to have rhythm in our music with multiple instrument
Through texture and dynamics
We played in a specific rhythm, changed the melody consistently and used the metallophone to help make the xylophone louder
By making it sound delayed
Rhythm
Rhythm, melody
Texture
Dynamics
Tempo
Instrument
We wanted to make it seem light and melodic that would depict the stars
Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of this image
It has bright tunes. It is happy
There is no image
Cheese and pepperoni
Shining, outstanding
Peaceful; relaxing
Peaceful
It is nice and good
It sounds soft and it’s like a lullaby It is a mixture of different sounds
The cool night breeze blew as the sky began to turn from a pristine light blue to a dark blue hue
It is joyous and has bright tunes
We were fast and sounded like stars lol
The sky is a soothing dark blue that seems endless. The white is darkened by the sky and seems like soft marshmallows. The stars are twinkling, making the sky a beautiful painting
Very smooth and soft and it helps us to sleep
It is calm and it will make you sleep
We wanted it to give of the feeling of stars twinkling in the dark night sky
We also wanted it to be calming to the person who hears it
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Rhythm
There is no image
Rhythm and texture
We will mainly use a consistent rhythm, playing high notes as we think that it is suitable for expressing the image of stars
We tried to make it soothing with a melody that goes up
Rhythm, dynamics, melody, tempo
We intended to play the different instruments at the same time and have dynamics
We wanted it to be soothing and nice to the ears
The high-pitched notes represent the cool breeze while the low notes represent the sky getting darker
Rhythm
We didn’t really wanted to express anything, it just sounded like the song ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars’
We intended to do that by creating a slow but lively melody
We use melody and tempo for it to be slow and smoothening so that it could similar to a lullaby
It has melody
We wanted it to have rhythm, melody
(Continued )
Describe this image in greater detail, by stating at least two qualities of this image
Tired
Relaxed
It is soothing, relaxed, and peaceful
Its soft and relaxing and it is also very soothing
It is relaxed and a peaceful piece of music
Sad and emotional
Stars give us a very gentle and soothing relaxation
Briefly describe how your group intended to express this image through music
Rhythm
Melody
Texture
Dynamics
Tempo
Instrument
Melody
We played the music in a slow and soft rhythm to express relaxation
We wanted the melody to be pleasant to the senses
Slow and soothing
We intended to express this image through the melody and rhythm of music. We decided that melody fits the context of the image of stars and we added rhythm because it has the effect of making us feel familiar to the beat and get comfortable listening to it
Clouds can symbolise peacefulness and drifting around the sky
Peaceful, soft, harmonic
Create a peaceful mood by playing the notes at a slow pace. We intended the music to be soft and gentle
The rhythm was not too fast and the volume was not too loud
Appendix 3
Summary of Coded Focused Group Discussions
Interview Summary
Experimental Class B-Express
Team A
Experimental [Express]
Successful composition project based on cumulative creative strategy; worked with different people in phase 2 and 3; final project included theatrical elements
Most members in this group had musical training and experience in composing Issues discussed:
• SPONTANEOUS MUSICAL CREATION: generate musical ideas by randomly hitting notes/ whistling, then listening to the sound created; ‘let’s wing it’, ‘accidental approach’, ‘ideas, just throw here and there’
• COLLABORATIVE CREATIVITY:
– finding the right people to work with – ‘we wanted to add something, but we just couldn’t find the right people to add’
– ‘I don’t think I can think alone’
• ITERATION/MULTIPLE REVISIONS: ‘we played our melody quite a bit’
• MERGING IDEAS: ‘just randomly hitting instruments and see how they merge, and we got it!’
• EXTENDING THE IDEA: added a constant pulse
• ADAPTING THE IDEA: adjusting the balance of the instruments
• NARRATIVE-BASED: final phase of composition structured upon a clearly defined narrative
• KEEP TRYING
• SCAFFOLDING: ‘if we didn’t build off from the melody that Kenneth and I had, we would not have done anything good’
• UNENDING PROCESS: ‘what we performed was basically just for fun’
Legend:
Red – quotes related to the creative process
Blue – quotes related to grit
Green – quotes related to other relevant emergent themes
(Continued )
Interview Summary
Experimental
Class B-Express
Team B
Experimental [Express]
Successful composition project based on cumulative creative strategy; large group with the girls taking the lead in most musical decisions two out of the eight members in this group had prior musical training and/or experience in composing
Issues discussed:
• CREATIVE LEADERSHIP: in the final phase of the composition process, the boys ‘let the girls do the deciding’
• ITERATION/MULTIPLE REVISIONS: initial pattern that was written down went through a number of changes – ‘we changed a lot’; ‘we were changing everything’
• MERGING IDEAS: initial attempts in merging two distinct melodic ostinato were unsuccessful – ‘they didn’t match, it didn’t go well’
• ADAPTING THE IDEA/SIMPLIFYING: scaling down the initial idea to help one member of the group who had difficulty playing it
• EXTENDING THE IDEA: discussed and decided on the narrative structure of the composition, with a solo section for the boys to play the cajons
Legend:
Red – quotes related to the creative process
Blue – quotes related to grit
Green – quotes related to other relevant emergent themes
Interview Summary
Experimental
Class A-Express
Team A
Experimental [Express]
Successful composition project based on cumulative creative strategy; large all-female group with elaborate narrative as the basis of their composition
Most members had no prior musical training or experience in composing Issues discussed:
• NARRATIVE-BASED: vivid descriptions of clouds and passing storm in the final phase of the project
• MERGING IDEAS: combining two distinct patterns in the second phase
• EXTENDING THE IDEA: adding the percussion section to depict the thunderstorm in the final phase
• NOVELTY: creating a pattern that was unique – ‘it’s different from others, because it goes from nice to dissonant… not as clichéd or mainstream’
• COLLABORATIVE CREATIVITY: using the ideas from multiple perspectives, and coming to a decision as a group
• ITERATION/KEEP TRYING: gradually overcame difficulties in the initial stages (room was too noisy/rehearsal was disorganised etc.) after a few weeks of rehearsal
• SCAFFOLDING: cumulative nature of the process made the rehearsals ‘more organised’
• DIVERSITY OF IDEAS
• PERSONAL EXPLORATION
Legend:
Red – quotes related to the creative process
Blue – quotes related to grit
Green – quotes related to other relevant emergent themes
(Continued )
Interview Summary
Experimental
Class A-Express
Team B
Experimental [Express]
Successful composition project based on cumulative creative strategy; small all-female group with elaborate narrative as the basis of their composition
Most members had prior musical training, but no experience in composing Issues discussed:
• EXTERNAL SOURCES: using the trigger activity as a source of ideas
• SPONTANEOUS MUSICAL CREATION: generate musical ideas by randomly hitting notes, then listening to the sound created
• MERGING IDEAS: initial attempts in merging two distinct melodic ostinato were unsuccessful – ‘sounds like someone playing a trash bin… sounds very horrible’
• EXTENDING THE IDEA/GROWTH: ‘It’s like you plant the seed and let the seed grow slowly and more and more will come in and then more and more people will come in and you add fertiliser to it too’
• COLLABORATIVE CREATIVITY:
– ‘more heads mean more ideas… so we get to be more creative’
– making compromises and adapting
• PRIOR EXPERIENCE: prior musical training and experience helped in the composing process
Legend:
Red – quotes related to the creative process
Blue – quotes related to grit
Green – quotes related to other relevant emergent themes
Interview Summary
Experimental
Class A-N(A) Team A
Control Class
C-Express Team A
Experimental [N(A)]
Students abandoned the clouds theme, and created a group composition based on a motif from Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space’ instead Issues discussed:
• PRIOR EXPERIENCE: prior musical training and experience helped in the composing process
• EXTENDING THE IDEA/ADAPTING THE IDEA: initial attempts in merging a motif from Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space’ and an original melodic motif were not successful; later developed a call-and-response structure
• OWNERSHIP/MOTIVATION: expressed a sense of pride in their creation – ‘It’s our own idea!’
• KEEP TRYING: overcame challenges in the execution of their ideas through repeated effort
• SCAFFOLDING: identifying a short motif to work on and develop helped their composing process – ‘we would be stuck again’
Control [Express]
Successful composition project not based on cumulative creative strategy; large all-male group in which one musical leader emerged
Most members had no prior musical training or experience in composing, with the exception of the musical leader Issues discussed:
• PRIOR EXPERIENCE: prior musical training and experience helped in the composing process
• SPONTANEOUS MUSICAL CREATION: generate musical ideas by randomly hitting notes, then listening to the sound created – ‘anyhow hit!’
• EXTENDING THE IDEA/ADAPTING THE IDEA: one of the group members had a strong musical idea, and recruited the help of others in extending the idea; added instruments; added accompaniment part – ‘I was trying to figure out what I could add more into it’
• CREATIVE LEADERSHIP: described how the musical leader came up with the musical idea and assigned parts for everyone else to play
• OWNERSHIP/MOTIVATION: expressed a sense of pride in their creation – ‘My idea’
• KEEP TRYING: a few group members who were less motivated; group leader kept persuading and trying out different ideas
Legend:
Red – quotes related to the creative process
Blue – quotes related to grit
Green – quotes related to other relevant emergent themes
(Continued )
Interview Summary
Control Class
C-Express Team B
Control Class
D-Express Team A
Control [Express]
Students abandoned initial ideas, and adopted an ostinato learnt earlier in the year instead –‘eating bananas gives us energy’; room for further musical development
Issues discussed:
• ADAPTING THE IDEA: adding a steady beat on the cajon to stabilise the tempo, assigning pitch to the rhythmic ostinati
• CREATIVE LEADERSHIP: most ideas came from one musical leader
• GIVE UP: abandoned their original ideas and restarted using a non-original rhythmic motif
• KEEP TRYING: recognised the need for perseverance in composing
• SCAFFOLDING: identifying a short motif to work on and develop helped their composing process – ‘we would be stuck again’
Control [Express]
Successful composition project not based on cumulative creative strategy; small all-female group using a simple melodic ostinato
Ideas discussed:
• NARRATIVE-BASED
• KEEP TRYING: had difficulty coordinating rhythms; recognised the need for perseverance in composing – ‘we learned not to give up, because even when we like even after we tried, I mean like the pieces didn’t blend in, we still…we didn’t give up. We continued and tried new ways until they actually worked’
Legend:
Red – quotes related to the creative process
Blue – quotes related to grit
Green – quotes related to other relevant emergent themes
