Sounding the Teaching VI by moe_star

sounding the teaching VI

IMAGINING POSSIBILITIES

A Publication by the Singapore Teachers‘ Academy for the aRts (STAR)

We would like to express our appreciation to Principal, staff and students of Admiralty Secondary School, Cantonment Primary School, Casuarina Primary School, Chua Chu Kang Primary School, Clementi Town Secondary School, Dunearn Secondary School, Edgefield Primary School, Edgefield Secondary School, Fengshan Primary School, Kong Hwa School, Maha Bodhi School, New Town Primary School, Northshore Primary School, Pasir Ris Secondary School, Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Secondary), Punggol Secondary School, Punggol View Primary School, River Valley Primary School, Rosyth School, Springfield Secondary School, St Stephen’s School, West Spring Secondary School, Woodgrove Primary School, Xinghua Primary School, Xingnan Primary School, Xinmin Primary School, Yio Chu Kang Secondary School

EDITORS: Chua Siew Ling and Marianne Woo

DESIGN AGENCY: Garçon Design

ISBN: 978-981-18-3678-7

sounding the teaching VI

IMAGINING POSSIBILITIES

Note: Information is

Foreword

Clifford Chua

Academy Principal

Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts

IntroductionImagining Possibilities

Chua Siew Ling

Principal Master Teacher (Music)

Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts

Section 1

e-Pedagogy – Facilitating Conceptual Changes

Visualisation of Sound Using Digital Tools and Its Effect on Student Learning

Alwin Tien Fengshan Primary School

Facilitate Better Understanding and Use of Musical Elements and Music Theory in Music Creation with GarageBand

Darren Sandosham St Stephen’s School

Empowering Student Composition by Learning Musical Devices and Basic Compositional Techniques with Technological Tools

Stella Ng Clementi Town Secondary School

Section 2

e-Pedagogy – Facilitating Flipped Learning

Section 2 44

Developing Confidence to Play the Ukulele Using Flipped Classroom and PLDs

Goh Wan Yu River Valley Primary School

Video Tutorials in Promoting Selfdirected and Independent Learning for GarageBand Music Compositions

Phang Sze Mein Woodgrove Primary School

Flipped Classroom in a Music ICT Module to Enhance Learning

Celine Lim and Ong Ding Yi Xinmin Primary School

Section 3 e-Pedagogy – Harnessing Technology in

Usage of STACK Framework in Building Learner Confidence in Beginner Songwriting for Primary 6 Students Using GarageBand

Rachel Han Kong Hwa School

Use of Digital Music Instruments in the Learning of Resonator Bells

Angela Kwan Cantonment Primary School

Use of Body Percussion Activities to Promote Students’ Engagement in Music Lessons

Geraldine Lim New Town Primary School

Section 4

The Use of Music Technology to Increase Students’ Intrinsic Motivation in Music Lessons

Grace Lee, Jocelyn Lau, Kwa Yan Teng and Sally Yong Casuarina Primary School

e-Pedagogy – Personalising Learning Through Technology 110 122

Investigating How the Use of Technology Impacts Students’ Selfdirected Learning and Enhances Creativity in a Pop Song Remix

Lim Jia Jing Springfield Secondary School

Students’ Musical Response to Blended Learning

Eileen Chia

Xinghua Primary School

Teo Xin Ning

Punggol View Primary School

How to Use ICT Tools in Music Lessons to Engage and Encourage Students’ Interest in Music?

Vu Tien Dat

Dunearn Secondary School

Section 5

How Clarity in Learning Impacts Students' Learning and Decision-making

Jane Chua

Chua Chu Kang Primary School

Increasing Students’ Engagement in the Music-making Process

Cindy Goh

Dunearn Secondary School

Investigating the Importance of Reflective Learning in Music Teaching and Learning

Asaph Lee and Ang Xin Wei

Punggol Secondary School

Developing Social and Emotional Competences Through Music Listening

Jasmine Peh

Pasir Ris Secondary School

The Effects of Peer Teaching and Using ICT Tools in the Classroom with a Focus on Learning the Keyboard

Grace Wong West Spring Secondary School

Inculcating Interest in Singapore Music Through Ukulele Module

Jermain Cho

Edgefield Secondary School

Section 7

Investigating the Impact of Improvisation on Musical Confidence and Engagement of Students

Ng Eng Kee Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School (Secondary)

Authentic Learning Through Real-world Scenarios in Composition Assignments

Michael Cartwright Yio Chu Kang Secondary School

Section 8 Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated Instruction in a Ukulele Module

Athena Choo Xingnan Primary School

Differentiated Instruction in Guitar Lessons

Elena Thein Admiralty Secondary School

Differentiated Instruction for Keyboard Module

Jeremy Lim Clementi Town Secondary School

Section 9

Using Tiered Assignments in Differentiated Music Classrooms

Chen Limin

Maha Bodhi School

Quah Hui Ling Northshore Primary School

Anna Chen

Rosyth School

Growing Students Through Inclusive Music Classrooms

Jessica Chaw

Edgefield Primary School

Foreword Introduction — Imagining Possibilities

Clifford Chua Academy Principal

Two years on, the pandemic continues to challenge our music educators’ imagination and they have pushed the boundaries of what was once considered possible in music education. This has been aided in no small measure by the rapid rise in the use of technology, which has expanded educational possibilities in the music classroom. Given this development, there is a need for teachers to remain relevant and agile even as they facilitate student empowerment in making sense of and building on new concepts learnt in these music sessions.

At a time when schools are facing constraints and limitations in social interactions due to the safe management measures (SMM), teachers have demonstrated creativity and innovation in circumventing these restrictions by harnessing technology in order to motivate and engage their students. Keeping in mind the need for holistic development, these teachers have managed to build safe and inclusive learning environments where students are empowered through authentic learning experiences to develop their character and social-emotional skills through music.

Through the CI NLC programme, 34 music teachers reflected on their current teaching practices. In the past year, we saw even more collaborations among teachers working on their inquiry projects. They explored a range of pedagogical approaches and adapted existing practices to design and deliver engaging and student-centric curriculum. Through collaborations and discussions, not only were they able to grow in their pedagogical practices, they were also able to gain a deeper understanding in the various domains under SkillsFuture for Educators (SFEd). Together, these exchanges become a collective professional capital for the fraternity, built up to enrich teaching and learning in our classrooms.

Chua Siew Ling Principal

Master Teacher

(Music) Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts

Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts

The teachers’ dedication to grow in their practice is a testament to the virtue of lifelong learning which they espouse. Through their dare-to-try attitude, they rise up to the challenge of leading teaching and learning in the fraternity and help cultivate a culture of teacherled professional excellence.

In response to a call to imagine possibilities for music education, a record number of teachers came forward as participants of the Critical Inquiry Networked Learning Community (CINLC) in 2021 to explore, experiment and document their journeys. Most of them were challenged by new technologies and opportunities created during the period of the pandemic and were also acutely aware of a need to engage and include every learner. This exciting publication is a collection of the many critical reflections of music teaching practices which teachers have reimagined for themselves.

The e-publication is organised through the lens of the SkillsFuture for Educators (SFEd). The concept map below reflects the key focus and learning from the teachers.

e-Pedagogy –Facilitating Conceptual Changes

Digital tools help

• Facilitate visualisation of sound in music creation (Alwin Tien)

• Reinforce music elements and theory in creative activities in digital compositions (Darren Sandosham)

• Facilitate learning of and application of an understanding of musical devices (Stella Ng)

e-Pedagogy

– Harnessing Technology in Music-making

Virtual instruments coupled with structured instructions can enhance learning (Angela Kwan)

Body percussion as a tune-in activity can be supported with music videos and the activity could support cognitive, behavioural and emotional engagement (Geraldine Lim)

Digital tools can motivate students in learning about music and culture (Grace Lee, Jocelyn Lau, Kwa Yan Teng and Sally Yong)

Enhancing student confidence is also about creating successes, having trust, providing access to learners, facilitating cooperative learning, and knowing our students (Rachel Han)

e-Pedagogy –Facilitating Flipped Learning

Supported by video tutorials e.g.

• In learning the ukulele (Phang Sze Mein)

• In using digital audio workstation (Celine Lim and Ong Ding Yi)

Supported by personal learning device (Goh Wan Yu)

Assessment for Learning

Character and Citizenship Education

Assessment for Learning can be supported with

• Peer teaching and ICT tools (Grace Wong)

• Developing clarity in learning (Jane Chua)

• Facilitating reflection through video recordings (Asaph Lee and Ang Xin Wei)

Imagining Possibilities

e-Pedagogy –Personalisation

Digital music making can encourage an interest in music, which is key to a successful learning process (Vu Tien Dat)

Personalising learning for students is also about giving attention to the learning process itself (Cindy Goh) and students’ ways of thinking (Vu Tien Dat)

Digital tools can personalise learning as it can

• Facilitate and document music creation (Lim Jia Jing)

• Facilitate understanding of musical forms (Eileen Chia and Teo Xin Ning)

Differentiated Instruction (DI)

DI in ukulele curriculum (Athena Choo)

DI in guitar curriculum (Elena Thein)

DI in keyboard curriculum (Jeremy Lim)

Music can develop SEL competencies (Jasmine Peh)

Having students research and perform songs by Singapore singer-songwriters changes students’ views on Singapore music (Jermain Cho)

Inquiry-based Learning

Special Learning Needs and Differentiated Instruction

Tiered Assignments in DI can engage different learners including special learners (Chen Limin, Quah Hui Ling and Anna Chen)

Application of ecological approach and universal design for learning in accommodating special needs (Jessica Chaw)

Harnessing improvisation (Ng Eng Kee)

Exploring impact of real-world scenarios on composition tasks (Michael Cartwright)

We intend for these various discoveries and reflections to encourage a rich dialogue and further reimaginings for music education in our contexts.

e-Pedagogy — Facilitating Conceptual Changes

New Possibilities in Re-envisioning the Teaching of Music Concepts and Fostering of Musical Understandings

Alwin Tien rationalised the use of visualisation of sound, which underpins the effectiveness of Song Maker, an experiment in Chrome Music Lab, as a digital tool in supporting music creation.

Darren Sandosham explores how musical elements and music theory could be reinforced through creative activities in GarageBand.

Stella Ng explores the use of technological tools to help students use musical devices and apply basic compositional techniques in their compositions.

Visualisation of Sound Using Digital Tools and Its Effect on Student Learning1

Literature Review

“The Knowing is Seeing metaphor is so firmly rooted in the role of vision in human knowing and is so central to our conception of knowledge that we are seldom aware of the way it works powerfully to structure our sense of what it is to know something.” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, p. 394)

There are times we forget to acknowledge the power of sight in helping us understand information. Thus, we will explore the power of sight in music learning.

Spatial Thinking

Firstly, let us take a look at how the visualisation of sound is related to spatial thinking.

According to Wai, Lubinski, and Benbow (2009), human intellect can be broken down into three abilities – spatial ability, verbal ability and numerical ability. Spatial thinking, in the study by Ishikawa and Newcombe (2021), could be further broken down into three dimensions. One is in different scales, whereby folding objects, packing things and navigation will require different scales of spatial thinking. Space can also vary by mediums, for example, 2D vs 3D, indoor vs outdoor and virtual vs reality. It can also vary by group or individual.

SPATIAL THINKING

at different scales

e.g. folding objects, packing spaces, navigation

Problem Solving

According to the National Research Council of the National Academies (2006), spatial thinking “approaches the process of problem solving via the co-ordinated use of space, representation, and reasoning” (p. 27). This is regardless of whether or not those objects themselves are inherently spatial. Sound is one such entity that we are going to focus on in this study.

Research Purpose and Goals

The research focus of this study is the visualisation of sound using digital tools and its effect on student learning.

Our goals include:

• Exploring the use of visualisation of sound in enhancing the learning of musical concepts

• Helping to strengthen the music curriculum by incorporating digital tools

• Helping students to develop their 21st Century Competencies

• Incorporating the element of exploration through musical playfulness to stimulate creativity and joy of learning

Curriculum

The development of our current curriculum took two years.

In 2020, when schools had to conduct Home-Based Learning, a curriculum was created on the fly to help our Primary 6 students continue their learning about rhythm, melody and harmony. Song Maker, an experiment in Chrome Music Lab, was the digital tool employed and teaching was carried out through the Student Learning Space (SLS). The lessons sought to inspire our students by asking them to explore Jacob Collier’s TED talk on his wonderful experiements with music. Students were asked to observe how he employs rhythm, melody and harmony in his musical works. Tutorials were also created by the teacher to guide students step by step in the use of Song Maker. I discovered that despite the presence of many constraints and barriers, many students produced good work and this led me to see the potential of Song Maker.

The curriculum was refined in 2021 and the way students were taught could be described as “I do → we do → you do → you do again → let’s share” as seen in Fig 2.

Fig 1a: Ishikawa & Newcombe (2021). Different dimensions of spatial thinking

Fig 1b: Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow (2009). Spatial ability as one of the three human abilities of human intellect

Special thanks to Valentin Welzl for his assistance provided in 2020 (Year 1 of the study).

Alwin Tien

Fengshan

Methodology

I do!

Students learn about Rhythm, Melody and Harmony using Song Maker

Music teacher teaches Rhythm, Melody and Harmony using Song Maker in class and through the SLS.

We do!

Students apply learning element by element using pair work

Music teacher monitors, shares students’ work and provides feedback.

You do!

Students submit draftwork via the SLS as holiday assignment.

Music teacher provides feedback via the SLS comments

Do again!

Students learn from the SLS comments and F2F discussions and submit final work via the SLS.

Music teacher highlights a variety of examples to help students deepen understanding.

Share!

Works from each class are displayed on the SLS Gallery Walk Students leave comments.

Music teacher moderates and shares comments with each class.

The study was carried out through teacher observations, classroom survey and focus group discussions over the two years.

Class Profile

YEAR 1

• 38 student volunteers from 2020

High Readiness (HR) Class

YEAR 2

• 30 student volunteers from 2021 HR Class

• 30 student volunteers from 2021 Medium Readiness (MR) Class

• 30 student volunteers from 2021 Low Readiness (LR) Class

Teacher Observations: Teachers reflect on observations of students via the SLS and face-to-face (F2F) sessions.

Classroom Survey: Survey was done to measure indicators reflecting how play, flexibility, fluidity and discernibility influence visualisation of sound.

Focus Group Discussion

YEAR 1

• 5 student volunteers from 2020

HR Class

YEAR 2

• 2 student volunteers from 2021

HR Class

• 2 student volunteers from 2021

MR Class

• 2 student volunteers from 2021

LR Class

A comparative study was also carried out between the HR classes of 2020 and 2021.

Research Findings

Teacher Observations

It was observed that when learning about rhythm, melody and harmony, students tend to need as much scaffolding as possible. Students experience challenges translating from medium to medium, like from graphic organisers or scores into music. Therefore, it is important to provide space for students to experiment and think about:

“What sound do I want to hear?”

The study findings support this. Large percentiles of students agreed that it is easier to create music without having to concurrently play the instruments. Hence digital tools like Song Maker allow students to ease into music creation by relieving them from the playing of instruments temporarily.

Fig 3: Students’ responses to a survey question: “Was it easier to create your own music without having to play musical instruments?”

Another observation by the teacher is that students are often inspired by very interesting representations. View and listen to their works in Fig 4.

Student Work #1 – Tokyo

In the first example, a student used the word “Tokyo” to create his music. You can see that the word “Tokyo” can be made out in this work, with the two hearts at both ends. Song Maker seems to have

Tokyo

“I got the idea for my song from my love of Japan… I put in effort to ensure that the notes can make out the word ‘Tokyo’.”

Click here to view recording

Rain

“I was inspired to create this song after observing how the rain can be rapid yet calm on a rainy day.”

Click here to view recording

Feeling Calm

“I chose the beats because they are very calming.”

Click here to view recording

opened up an alternative avenue for students to visualise music, with the pupil actually using the spelling to create music. A music score may not open up such possibilities. Nor is it likely to be visualised if the pupil was playing a musical instrument.

Student Work #2 – Rain

Click on the hyperlink in Fig 5 to view the screen recording so that you can see how the actual interface of Song Maker works.

Quoting the student, “I was inspired to create this song after observing how the rain can be rapid yet calm on a rainy day.”

Fig 4: Students’ works in Song Maker

Fig 4: Song Maker Interface for Student Work #1 – Tokyo

Fig 5: Song Maker Video Screen Recording for Student Work #2 – Rain

Click here to listen to the recording

experienced by users of digital tools that visualise music

Student Survey Findings

We designed a student survey built on Macchiusi’s (2017) notion of “Knowing is Seeing”.

Macchiusi (2017) expounds four parameters to measure the outcomes experienced by users of digital tools that visualise music. The article asks: Does the tool stimulate a sense of play? How does the design space encourage the playful manipulation of sound? And did the flexibility, fluidity and discernibility of the digital tool enhance play even further, often triggering happy incidents that encourages users to create music? Does the tool allow flexibility and

Play

How design space encourages the playful manipulation of sound

Does it accommodate to divergent thinking and creative tangents?

are the visual responses provided in response to the user’s actions?

accommodate for divergent thinking and creative tangents? How does the workflow allow for fluidity and give the user a feeling of control? How do the visual responses help the user in terms of discernibility?

For our student survey, we asked our students the following questions, simplified for them to understand. For Play, we asked them if it was fun. For Flexibility, we asked them if it was easy to make changes to their work. For Fluidity, we asked them if it was easy to find what they needed in Song Maker. For Discernibility, we asked them how much they felt that they understood how Song Maker works.

Findings from the HR groups

In 2020, the responses from the HR class were encouraging (see Fig 7). All measures were above 3.0, which is above the midpoint of the 5-point Likert survey. Particularly high was discernibility (3.9), which indicated that students felt that they could understand how Song Maker works.

Group

This finding was consistent with the findings in 2021 HR class, as its highest score was also discernibility at 4.2.

In 2021, the HR class scored higher in all four outcomes, with flexibility showing an increase of +0.6. It showed that the F2F curriculum implemented in 2021 may have increased students’ understanding and confidence in making changes to their work.

Findings from the MR and LR groups

Both the 2021 MR and LR groups scored highly for Play (4.4). All other indicators are 3.5 and above. This showed that there is parity across all three readiness group users and Song Maker is suitable for all learners. 2020 HR

Fig 6a (below): Ian Macchiusi’s four parameters to measure outcomes

Fig 6b (right): Ian Macchiusi’s model, re-adapted into student survey questions

Fig 7: HR students’ responses in the four parameters in Radar Chart

Fig 8: MR and LR students’ responses in the four parameters in Radar Chart

Discussion

Let us review our findings with the literature.

For Play, there was a score of 4.1 and above across all readiness groups in 2021. One student commented, “As we are talking now, I feel like going back to try Song Maker again.” The literature suggests that being able to aimlessly experiment and play around in search of unique sounds encourages the creation of happy incidents. These happy incidents evoke playful feelings in correspondence to the direct manipulation of Graphical User Interface (GUI).

For Flexibility, there was a score of 3.6 or above across all readiness groups in 2021. This is a positive response as it is +0.6 above midpoint. When the teacher asked a student whether he/she would like to use a different digital tool, the student’s response was, “No. Song Maker better.”

The literature suggests that “Undo” is a primary tool for supporting exploration. It reassures the user that they can change their mind anytime and this gives them the confidence to explore further. As Crawford

(2002) states, “The Undo function is that comforting rope ladder to the surface, supporting a user’s willingness to explore further by assuring him that he can get out of any dead-end caverns.”

For Fluidity, there was a score of 3.5 or above across all readiness groups in 2021. This is a positive score that is +0.5 above midpoint. One student commented, “Previously I tried to make songs of my own but cannot. Song Maker can.”

The literature suggests that such a result is a measure of Song Maker’s effectiveness in Direct Manipulation: the act of pointing at a graphic object on the screen and affecting a visible result. As Macchiusi (2017) suggested, “Working in real-time, hearing your manipulations as they are enacted without stopping the music, contributes to the fluidity of the producer’s workflow.”

For Discernibility, there was a positive score of 3.8 or above across all readiness groups in 2021. This is a positive score of +0.8 above midpoint. One student commented, “When I was creating the song, I can see that it is made up of ticks and straight lines.”

This finding is a surprise as literature review states that industry producers usually prefer audio forms over the MIDI, piano roll form, used in Song Maker, because the music theory involved in MIDI notation often hinders their creation process. But my research reveals otherwise, that students can understand the use of Song Maker despite its use of MIDI notation. This could be because of the elemental approach used in our school for teaching music, and students are able to apply their learning comfortably in Song Maker.

Focus Group Discussions

For the focus group discussions, students for the 2020 group were selected from different quartiles of their assessment results as well as their differing music backgrounds.

The 2021 group encompasses student volunteers from different readiness groups.

Some themes arose from the 2021 group discussions and I’d like to share them with you. They show the different ingredients students used to create their music.

Mood

First is incorporating mood in their music. It can be rain, a sense of calm or happy vibes.

I was inspired by the rain, which can be rapid yet calm.

Student Profile 2020

Student #1:

Taken from 2nd quartile of music assessment results

Music background: Less than 1 year (piano)

Student #2:

Taken from 2nd quartile of music assessment results

Music background: No external music classes.

Student #3:

Taken from top quartile of music assessment results

Music background: Less than 1 year (piano)

Student Profile 2021

2 student volunteers from HR group

2 student volunteers from MR group

2 student volunteers from LR group

I want a happy vibe. I wanted songs that made me feel calm.

Simplicity vs Creativity

Second, students often wanted to create something simple yet creative.

I wanted to create something simple, but not too simple. So I just overlapped my song, Jingle Bells, one octave apart with the top part being one note faster. It sounds nice to me.

Self-learning and Peer Learning

Third, a sense of self-directedness. They often learn from different avenues, be it googling, friends, family or teacher tutorials on the SLS. One student mentioned that she wanted to put in effort to do her work because she does not want to feel like she is cheating. This shows a sense of selfdirectness in her learning.

Fig 9: Student profiles for focus group discussions in 2020 and 2021

I want to put in effort to do my work because I do not want to feel like I am cheating. I want to learn how to make a song and I will learn more if I do it this way.

After learning from my teacher’s demonstration on the SLS, I decided to build on it to be more creative.

I googled to learn more about soundsuites.

I had some help from my friends as they gave me some good advice.

I created the song after discussing with my brother.

Creating by Chance

Fourth, a theme arising from the 2020 group discussions showed that creation was often by chance. Song Maker allowed sufficient flexibility for creation.

When you are young you learn some basic-like piano songs and when you use the Song Maker, you can like press the button and then if they think it can sound similar, they can like slowly start making a song then maybe if they are used to it they can start using more songs.

When my music sounded a bit bland and I went back to add more notes.

I tried all the different instruments to see like which one sounds the best.

Hmm in the first place I was like, didn’t know what to do, then I thought I will learn something that I didn’t learn before. My ending part is different from the original la, so ya quite different.

Fluidity and Control

Fifth, a theme of having a sense of control also came up during the 2020 group discussions. All students interviewed in both years agree that Song Maker is easy to understand and it is a good start to learn how to create digital music, which is encouraging as it shows Song Maker allows for fluidity during the creation process.

Song Maker is easier for beginners to make songs.

Arrow keys allow accurate control of music.

(Other digital tool) is too complicated. I wanted to quit using it because it was so messy.

Discernibility

Sixth, all students in both years shared that Song Maker was easy to understand, hence the discernibility of the tool is good. One student was able to provide explanations of how he related colour to tone.

Song Maker is easier to read than the music score. The little squares and colours make things more recognisable.

When I was creating the song, I can see that it is made up of ticks and straight lines.

Conclusions

• Spatial thinking is a form of problem-solving skill that can be used in music-making: Students often use mental representations to visualise their music.

• Visualisation of sound with digital tools bridges other gaps in musical skills: Students found that it was easier to create their own music without having to play musical instruments.

• Affordance of flexibility, fluidity and discernibility better stimulates a sense of play:

Students expressed that Song Maker is easy to understand and is a good start to learn how to create digital music.

References

Crawford, C. (2002). The art of interactive design: A euphonious and illuminating guide to building successful software No Starch Press.

Dowling, T (2018). What is the imprint of technology on music education? UCL Institute of Education. https://www. researchgate.net/publication/324574566

Ishikawa, T., & Newcombe, N. S. (2021). Why spatial is special in education, learning, and everyday activities. Cogn. Research 6 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00274-5

Macchiusi, I. A. (2017). “Knowing is seeing”: The digital audio workstation and the visualization of sound York University Toronto, Ontario.

Murillo R. E. (2017). The 21st century elementary music classroom and the digital music curriculum: A synergism of technology and traditional pedagogy. Texas Music Education Research 14-27.

• Song Maker has been shown to encourage a sense of play and provide fluidity, flexibility and discernibility to users. (All parameters 3.5 or above)

• There is parity among users of Song Maker across all readiness groups as their scores are similar.

• HR groups scored higher in discernibility than MR and LR groups, showing that HR groups feel more in control in understanding how Song Maker works.

• Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought (Vol. 640) Basic Books.

• National Research Council of the National Academies. (2006). Learning to think spatially The National Academies Press. https://www.nap.edu/read/11019/chapter/4#27

• TED. (2018, February 8). A one-man musical phenomenon [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/dDZoGcQVjJg. Wai, J., Lubinski, D., & Benbow, C. P. (2009). Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101 817-835. https://doi.org/10.1037/ a0016127

Facilitate Better Understanding and Use of Musical Elements and Music Theory in Music Creation with GarageBand

Darren Sandosham

Introduction – Background And Context Of Research

The digital music programme in our school was first introduced in 2012, using the software SONAR, which uses music loops for music creation. Although it was new to us, we wanted to introduce to our students the new ways in music-making.

In 2014, we introduced an informal learning component to the Primary 6 programme, using ukuleles, guitars and percussion instruments. The aim was to give students a sense of authenticity in making music together.

In 2018, GarageBand replaced SONAR as it provided an intuitive environment and SMART instruments, enabling students to experience more realistic music creation, regardless of their actual instrument proficiencies. In that version of the programme, students had to reconstruct a popular song in pairs. This involved them going through a process of analysing a given pop song for the chord progression, the tempo, the structure of a song and instrumentation.

As it has evolved, we see the digital music programme as a form of a summary programme for students to apply their musical knowledge which they attained during their primary school music journey.

However, given the features of GarageBand, I wondered if there could be a way to link the learning experiences of what the students did in GarageBand, with the learning and performing of a pop song together as a group, and aspects of understanding musical elements and theory.

Defining the Issue

In trying to define the issue, we considered the following:

• Do the learning activities that take place during the GarageBand lessons help students in learning about musical elements and theory?

• Is there an applicative takeaway from the instructions and experience they go through?

• Can they then use the knowledge more confidently to make music together meaningfully (e.g. in Informal Learning)?

Research Topic

This research aims to investigate the GarageBand project as a teaching tool to facilitate better understanding and use of musical elements and music theory

Considerations

z Students’ entry point (Baseline)

We had to get an idea of where the students were musically and the level we aimed for them to be at by the end of the programme.

z Using GarageBand

We had to familiarise students with using GarageBand so that it would not be an

music programme in Semester 1 was to create a jingle, based on a theme of national unity.

St Stephen’s School

Lesson and Activities

For the lessons, each student was given an iPad and was allowed some time for hands-on experience after some instruction was given.

Methodology

Data Collection

Pre- and Post-Questionnaire (Online)

We crafted the questionnaire based on the learning they have had over the first five years of music instruction. The questions were as follows:

1. What are chords?

2. Name some chords that you know. (Limit to six chords)

3. What is harmonic/chord progression?

4. What is the difference between melody and harmony?

5. Do the different instruments in a piece of music play the same thing? (E.g. melody, pitch, rhythm)

6. What do you think happens when you play a simple one-beat (crochet) groove compared to a groove with many beats (syncopated) in the bass line?

7. What happened to your music when you used simple rhythms or more complex rhythms?

8. How can the tempo change the overall effect of the music?

9. What notes make up the C Major Pentatonic Scale?

The students completed the questionnaire on the Student Learning Space (SLS) during their music class. This was done in the earlier part of the year before the lessons started.

For the post-questionnaire, the students completed the same questionnaire on the SLS during their music class.

Although this was a level-wide programme, the data was only taken from one sample class. Profile of sample class:

• 40 students

• Mixed mid to high ability

• Eight out of 40 students had formal music instruction (i.e. taken private music lessons and music examinations), the others had the school music programme and other informal music experiences

Assessment

In terms of assessment, the students were given guidelines on how their piece of music would be assessed so that they had some idea of what they were working towards. Below is a sample of the rubrics:

Individual assessment of Jingle music

Criteria

Melody (10m)

Melody is poorly shaped throughout.

Melodic ideas are composed with little or limited understanding of compositional devices and are applied randomly throughout.

Melody is adequately formed. Melodic ideas show moderate understanding of compositional devices and applied with some consistency.

Melody is well formed. Melodic ideas are created with secure understanding of compositional devices which are applied consistently most of the time.

Harmony (10m)

Rhythm (10m)

Chords chosen are arranged with little harmonic understanding and are incoherent and/or inaccurate throughout the composition.

Composition shows inconsistent rhythmic notation and patterns/ loops created or chosen do not fit the musical context.

Chords chosen are arranged with some understanding of harmonic progression, although not always consistent in the composition.

Composition shows some sense of rhythm and the rhythmic patterns/loops created or chosen fit the musical context some of the time.

Chords chosen are coherently arranged and show good understanding of harmonic progression most of the time in the composition.

Composition shows good sense of rhythm and the rhythmic patterns/ loops created or chosen are most of the time appropriate to the context of the music.

Melody is strong and imaginative.

Melodic ideas created show a very secure understanding of compositional devices which are applied consistently throughout.

Chords chosen show very clear recognition of harmonic progression and are highly effective throughout the composition.

Composition shows very secure sense of rhythm and rhythmic patterns/loops created or chosen show strong relevance to the context of the music.

Findings

What do you think happens to a piece of music when you play a one-beat (crochet) rhythm/groove compared to a rhythm/groove with many beats (syncopated) in the bass line?

(C, D, E, F, G, A, B) make up the C Major

a. Was it easy to perform the rap to your song? b. What were the challenges that you faced in performing the rap? –

In this table, we can see the changes and number of students who were able to give answers that were deemed to show sufficient comprehension of the concept being asked. In most areas, the responses indicated that the students had a somewhat firmer grasp of the musical elements and theory.

The last question regarding the ease of performing the rap was only asked during the postquestionnaire. I did not expect any of them to find it easy, as it does require a certain level of ability, both in language and sense of rhythm.

Fig 2: Rubrics for individual assessment of Jingle music

Fig 3: Examples of students’ Jingles Samples

Students’ responses

All responses chosen, from both pre- and post-questionnaire, were from students with no formal music background.

Chords are… the things on the guitar.

A harmonic/chord progression is how the beats of the music change over time as the music goes on.

Melody is catchy, harmony is smooth?

When the tempo is fast, ... it is energetic. When the tempo is slow, ... it is peaceful.

They (chords) are strings.

The beats are different.

What do you think happens to a piece of music when you play a one-beat (crochet) rhythm/groove compared to a rhythm/groove with many beats (syncopated) in the bass line?

It changes the music.

Fig. 4: Pre-Programme Sample Student Responses

The difference between harmonies and melodies is that a harmony builds upon an already existing melody, and a harmony needs a melody to exist.

A harmonic/chord progression is when you play the chords in their order.

A chord is a set of two or more notes played together at the same time. These aren’t just picked at random and then played together. These notes must go well together.

When you play a simple one-beat, the music sounds bland compared to a groove with many beats, which is groovy.

A groove with many beats is faster and sounds longer as compared to a simple one-beat.

When the tempo is fast, ... has been found to evoke positive emotions, such as happiness, excitement, delight and liveliness. When the tempo is slow, ... it evokes negative emotion.

Fig. 5: Post-Programme Sample Student Responses

Conclusion – Discussion on Findings

Upon studying the responses to the questionnaires, what comes to mind is, when the students had to make decisions about what chord progression to use, what kind of rhythm patterns to use, the tempo at which to play the music and the choice of instruments, they invariably become more aware of the musical elements that affected their final product.

It is not the intent of the project to show the direct correlation of using GarageBand to develop music theory. Nevertheless, we could see positive results in student learning when their learning of music concepts and

Musical Element/Concept

Chords

Rhythms

Tempo

Timbre

Pitch

theory is reinforced through their overall experience in the creative work using GarageBand.

Also, the way that students responded to my questionnaire might not meet exact technical definitions of musical elements, as well as my views on what is acceptable, as an answer can be subjective. Nevertheless, the reflection process contributed to reinforcing student learning.

Overall, the project has helped me to refine and improve the programme by sharpening its focus on student learning deliverables.

Demonstrated skill

Choosing a chord progression

Deciding on a rhythm for their song

Choosing the tempo at which they would create their song

Choosing the auxiliary sounds for their song

Creating a melodic ostinato

Empowering Student Composition by Learning Musical Devices and Basic Compositional Techniques with Technological Tools

Stella Ng

Clementi Town Secondary School

Background

There is a need to improve the students’ BandLab compositions. Often the music is lacking in musical structure or musical devices. Although students were taught basic verse and chorus, and melody arrangement, the works of students turned out a random assemblage of loops and they did not sound musical at all.

Inquiry study topic and

research question

How do e-pedagogy and ICT tools empower students in the learning of musical devices to improve compositional technique?

• Observation

• Kahoot! quiz

• Google Form questionnaires

• Study of the students’ compositions

Context of lesson

z Subject: Music

z Level: 6 classes of mixed-ability Secondary 2 Express/Normal (Academic)/Normal (Technical) students

z Objective: Students are to identify and apply the concept of musical devices into their compositions

z Key Concepts: Musical devices (including call and response, ostinato, imitation, drone, syncopation)

z Learning Outcomes: Demonstration of application of musical devices in a rap and BandLab composition

Student Profile from Pre-Survey Findings Lesson Flow

with music background (Students who have previously learnt or are still learning music theory or an instrument) have worked with DAW to create music composition have never tried before (Students who have no experience at all with DAW)

• Activate students’ prior knowledge

• Facilitate Learning Together – one of Key Applications of Technology (MOE, 2020)

• Assessment for Learning Strategies

z Technological tools: Google Classroom, Google Slides, Google Forms, Kahoot!, Google Sheets (for analysis of data)

Fig 1: Overview of Lesson 1 & 2 through Design Map

Overview of Lesson 1 & 2

Design Map

Lesson 1

• Kahoot! quiz to recapitulate the last lesson on music genres

• Research on musical devices based on understanding of the YouTube links given

• Present findings on Google Slides and consolidate in Google Classroom

• Critique other students’ work

Lesson 2

• Review of musical devices learnt using a Kahoot! quiz – 31% correct responses (Fig 3)

• Facilitate students to consider how musical devices fit in raps (writing lyrics with rhythmic patterns) (Fig 4)

• Musical forms quiz

• Peer feedback grid with the following questions:

 What musical devices were applied?

 Best two group performances (stating reasons)

 Areas for improvement

 Things I have learnt from the performance

• Assessment for Learning (AfL) Quiz – 60% correct responses (A different online Google Form to reiterate the concepts learnt at the end of lesson)

• After doing the rap performance and evaluating their class performance, students did the Google device quiz with the following questions. 60% of responses were accurate. The AFL Google Form reviewed the following concepts.

 What is imitation?

 What is a sequence?

 What is a pedal note/drone?

 Syncopation is....

 An ostinato is....

Fig 2: Examples of students’ work in Google Classroom in Lesson 1

Fig 5: Overview of Lesson 3 through Design Map

Fig 4: Examples of students’ rap work in Lesson 2

Fig 3: Students’ Kahoot! responses

Design Map

Overview of Lesson 3

Lesson 3

• The lesson began with a word cloud to solicit the students’ ideas about the anatomy of a song. (See Fig 6)

• There was a Kahoot! quiz on melody, harmony, texture and rhythm. It was observed that most students either searched for the answers on Google or discussed with their peers. This showed that students were engaged and interested to find out the correct answers to the quiz.

• Aleatoric music (Alea means “dice”) or chance music is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance. Performer(s) would determine the element of a composed work.

• Students experience the concept of chance music – rolling a dice to determine which elements/loops to use in BandLab.

 The teacher modelled the lesson by showing the student how to select the loops from BandLab and insert the loops into the tracks.

 By going through the process, the students also learnt how to use BandLab as it was their first foray into composition using DAW.

 Through rolling the online dice, students selected the specific loops in BandLab to put together to form three short excerpts. (See Fig 7)

 This hands-on activity introduced the chance music concept in practice.

 Students practised active listening and critical thinking by reflecting individually and then in pairs.

 The students recorded their findings in the worksheet. The worksheet encouraged the students to compare and think about the excerpts. These are the questions asked in the worksheet as follows (see Fig 8):

Compare between three excerpts:

• Favourite composition and why?

• Least favourite composition and why?

• Important elements in composing.

Fig 6: Responses on Word Cloud for elements in a song

Fig 8: Examples of the student worksheets

Fig 7: Roll a Dice Activity where students had selected tracks in BandLab

Reflection on how the students are engaged

• Rap Performance

 Students presented on their assigned topics

 Practise active listening and identify musical devices employed

• Assessment for Learning

 Gave feedback to their peers

 Completed Google Forms on musical devices to check for their understanding on the topic

Survey Findings

1. How effective was the use of Google Slides during the collaboration of group work on the learning of musical devices?

responses

70% of the students found the use of Google Slides effective for collaborative work in the learning of musical devices.

2. The Google Slides help me...

add drawings, images and videos easily

work with my teammates on it at the same time learn from one another’s ideas edit my group work instantaneously collaborate with others easily

72.3% of the students enjoyed working with their teammates and 64.2% cited learning from one another’s ideas as the chief reasons for the use of Google Slides.

You may tick more than 1 box

3. In the learning of musical devices, would you prefer to...

self-explore

collaborate with teammates to learn about the topic learn the content by listening to the teacher solely (teacher talks)

I hate music

Yes play games play games like Kahoot! and Quizizz all options

61.3% of the students enjoyed collaborating with teammates to learn about the musical devices.

4. After the lesson on musical devices, I am able to make use of musical devices in my music compositions.

Qualitative Findings

• Students got to bond more with friends and use BandLab to create music with musical devices.

 “It is more fun and interesting as we can get to know our classmates better”

• Others thought “self-exploration is the most efficient way”

1 being extremely able, 4 being not at all able

77.4% of the students are able to make use of the musical devices in their music compositions.

5. I am more confident in using ICT tools (Google Classroom, computer) during the lesson.

 Through the Kahoot! games, students found “self-exploring through game activities is fun”

• Real-world application

 “… musical devices can apply to our real life if we listen to music or make music one day”

• Engagement and enjoyment

 “I am quite engaged in the lesson as we use surveys and Kahoot! games to learn which is fun”

 “The lesson is very engaging with various ICT gadgets that keep me interested”

Conclusions

6. I am engaged in the lesson.

• In the past, a frontal teaching approach did not work so well as the students were not able to absorb the information and were disengaged. As a result, their understanding of the concept was weak.

• To address this challenge, technology was employed as a means to engage the students. By using Kahoot! as a means of gamification instead of the teacher merely reiterating the

 “It is fun to learn music with computers”

• Before the lesson, the students thought that musical devices were boring and useless and some even had misconceptions that they were musical instruments. After the lesson, 61.8% realised that they were able to make use of the musical devices in their work.

• Challenges faced in learning musical devices:

 Some students found it hard to remember all the musical devices and to apply at least two musical devices in their work

 Some were also confused and did not know how to apply – need to explore a different means of presentation of concepts/wording

concepts, students would enjoy learning more (joy of learning). In the process, they learnt and applied the concepts.

• Most students were able to make use of musical devices and were confident in using ICT tools as seen in their work and their survey responses.

• Most of the groups were friendship groups which might have made the process more enjoyable for the students and fostered their participation.

• Technology has enabled the visible interactions for learning between the student, the content and the teacher, which contributed to empowering students’ composition as they were able to learn and apply musical devices into their music compositions.

e-Pedagogy — Facilitating Flipped Learning

New Possibilities in Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom

56 62 SECTION 2

Goh Wan Yu explores the use of flipped classroom strategies with personal learning devices (PLDs) and ICT tools to develop students’ ability and motivation in playing the ukulele in her music classroom.

Phang Sze Mein explores the use of teacher-created video tutorials and flipped classroom approaches in her GarageBand music composition lessons.

Celine Lim and Ong Ding Yi explore the effectiveness of the flipped classroom approach, through the use of the SLS tutorial videos, for their GarageBand music arrangement module.

Developing Confidence to Play the Ukulele Using Flipped Classroom and PLDs

Introduction

The current batch of Primary 4 students did not get much chance to play the ukulele in 2020 due to Full Home-Based Learning (FHBL). Based on the results of the final assessment task in the ukulele module in 2020, the students were observed to be unable to play the instrument confidently. This is in comparison to Primary 3 students who went through the same module in 2019.

Hence, there is a need to bridge learning on top of covering the existing Primary 4 curriculum and also build students’ confidence through engaging lessons.

Profile of Students

The class:

• 39 students

• Have learnt C, F and Am chords on the ukulele in Primary 3

• Six out of 39 students own a ukulele at home

• Had little hands-on experience with the ukulele due to FHBL in 2020

In 2021, my school is also piloting a study on the use of personal learning devices (PLDs), which are iPads, for primary school students. Hence, I decided to seize the opportunity to use PLDs in my project too.

As for technological readiness, the students were able to use the Student Learning Space (SLS) and Padlet with ease, but they had no knowledge of GarageBand.

Pre-Module Survey on Student Readiness

I conducted a pre-module survey to find out about the readiness of my students. The questions included open-ended, multiple-choice questions (MCQ) and rating types. Here are the questions:

1. What do you think are some skills you need for playing the ukulele? (Open-ended)

2. What were some struggles you used to have when you were playing the ukulele? (Open-ended)

3. Identify fingering for C, F and Am chords. (MCQ)

4. Rate your skills (how well you strum to a steady beat, change chords on time).

5. I know how to read chord charts.

6. I know how to guide my friends to play the ukulele

Examining the responses to the open-ended questions, I saw that students reflected that the skills needed for the ukulele could be categorised into three areas: knowledge on chords, skills on strumming and others such as coordination skills.

Skills needed for ukulele (Q1)

Chords Strumming Others

• Accuracy

• Fingering

• Changing chords in time

• Remembering the sequence (Chord progression)

• Strumming patterns

• Rhythms

• Playing to the beat

The problems they faced included skills and some others. For the purpose of this study, we shall focus on skills.

• Patience

• Good eye-hand coordination

Problems faced when learning ukulele (Q2)

Skills Others

• Chord fingering

• Changing chords in time

• Playing with a steady beat

• Names of strings

• Fingers hurt

• Very hard to learn

• Don’t know how to tune the ukulele

From the forced-choice questions, it could be observed that many of them did not retain the knowledge and skills learnt from last year. Also, I measured confidence by looking at how confident the students were at guiding their peers.

Identifying chord fingerings (Q3)

Mean rating of their skills (Q4) (On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 – very confident)

Confidence level (Q6) (I can guide my friends to play the ukulele)

C chord64.1%Steady beat 317.9%

Am chord33.3%Change chords on time 2.71

F chord51.3%

Goh Wan Yu River Valley Primary School

Fig 1: Student responses for Q1 of the pre-module survey

Fig 2: Student responses for Q2 of the pre-module survey

Fig 3: Student responses for Q3, Q4 and Q6 of the pre-module survey

I was able to define the issues involved from the pre-module survey. Students faced challenges with the following skills while playing the ukulele:

• Chord fingering

• Changing chords in time

• Strumming to a steady beat

Without skill mastery, students were less independent – resulting in lower motivation and engagement level, which influenced their confidence level.

Research Purpose and Question

The purpose of my research is to measure the impact of using flipped classroom to develop students’ confidence levels in playing the ukulele.

Hence my hypothesis is: Flipped classroom develops students’ confidence level in playing the ukulele.

Which leads to my research question: “How can flipped classroom develop students’ confidence in playing the ukulele?”

Flipped Classroom Set-up

First, I decided on the tools that I was going to use.

I would use the SLS to send out learning packages for HBL, and use Padlet as a platform to store warm-up activities, backing tracks and resources for students. I would use GarageBand as an alternative instrument for students and Apple Books1 for students to store their ukulele booklet and do their own note-taking using the markup function. Finally, I would use Apple Classroom as a classroom management tool.

Module Outline

Lesson 1 to 4 Lesson 5 to 7

Familiarising with ICT tools and recapitulation of Concepts and Skills learnt in P3

Learning new G chord and new song repertoire, verse and chorus

Lesson Plans and Customisation

Lesson 1 (F2F)

• Set up Apple Classroom

• Conduct pre-module survey

• AirDrop ukulele booklet

• Saving Padlet link under Favourites on Safari

• Reinforce classroom routines for ukulele

• Instructions for Home-Based Learning before the next lesson

HBL (Flipped Classroom)

• Complete the SLS package on review of P3 topics

• Revisit fingering for C and F Major, A minor chords

• Create a fretboard if they have lost the one they made last year

• Bring their ukulele to be tuned in school

Lesson 2 (F2F)

• Recap instructions on routines

• Collect ukulele, check if it needs to be tuned

• Use screen mirroring (SM) to model and check fingering

• Play video of teacher’s performance of Something Just Like This (F major and A minor)

• Students to attempt playing the song

• Showcase students using SM

• Instructions for Home-Based Learning before the next lesson

Resources required

• Personal iPad

• Students’ PLDs

• Padlet with backing track, self-help videos

• Ukulele booklet

8 (Final Product)

Choose a song from the repertoire and perform it

Remarks

• To allow for home practice for those who do not own a ukulele

• Encouraging students to take ownership of their learning

Remarks

• Routines were essential for classroom management

• The mirror image on the screen helped students at the back to see the demonstration more clearly

Fig 4: Classroom set-up with PLDs and ukuleles

Fig 5: Outline of module

Home Practice

• Students to practise the warm-ups for two-chord change and three-chord change

• Watch teacher’s demonstration on two new songs

• Try out the song Best Day of My Life and Can’t Stop the Feeling

Lesson 3 (F2F)

• Allow students time to warm up on their own

• Showcase students who practised the warm-up and Best Day of My Life and Can’t Stop the Feeling using SM

• Introduce GarageBand and its functions

• Drop the backing track for the three songs and get students to try out changing chords on time

Home Practice

• Students to practise changing chords on GarageBand for the three songs

Lesson 4 (F2F)

• Warm-up

• Showcase students who practised on GarageBand using SM from their seats

• Sharing about any difficulty they had

• Play the three songs on GarageBand

• AirDrop GarageBand file for Faded

HBL (Flipped Classroom)

• Students to view the video recording of teacher’s performance of the five songs

• Try playing Faded on GarageBand

• Try out G chord fingering on their fretboard/ukulele

Lesson 5 (F2F)

• Allow students to show what they think the G chord is on the ukulele

• Demonstrate live playing of Faded on the ukulele through SM on front camera

• Allow students to try out playing on their ukulele

• Teacher walks around to check their fingering and address any learning concerns

• Showcase students through SM

• AirDrop GarageBand file for the remaining four songs

Remarks

• Preparation for the next song Best Day of My Life

• Providing opportunities for students to practise their fingering

Remarks

• Isolating the skills for fingering and changing chords on time so that students can offload their mind and focus better

Remarks

• Getting used to the functions of GarageBand

Remarks

• Classroom discussion to address any issues face to face

Remarks

• Getting used to the functions of GarageBand

• Getting used to the chord progression

Remarks

• Classroom discussion to address any issues face to face

• Application: Putting fingering together with changing chords on the ukulele

Lesson 6-7 (F2F)

• Introduce Superman, Fight Song and This Is Me strumming patterns

• Students practise and check each other in pairs

• School Holiday Assignment: Choose one song to perform. Record a video of their performance on ukulele or fretboard and submit on Padlet

Lesson 8 (F2F)

• Follow up with those students who did not submit

• Give teacher’s feedback to students on their playing

• Conduct post-module survey

Lesson 1 and HBL Flipped

Classroom Lesson

In Lesson 1, more logistical matters are handled, for example, adding students into Apple Classroom. With Apple Classroom I was able to have access to the students’ iPads. I could launch certain applications on their iPads, lock their screens so that they had to stay on a particular app, or lock their screens so that they could look up from their screens and stay focused. I was also able to view their screens and see what they were doing. At the end of the lesson, Apple Classroom also provides a summary of what applications were accessed during my lesson.

I shared the screen of my iPad using Apple TV.

I was also able to launch Safari (web browser) and direct students to the pre-module survey website on Google Forms. I launched Apple Books and shared the booklet with the students via AirDrop. Using the same method, I used Safari to direct students to the Padlet and demonstrated how they could save the link under Favourites. During this lesson I wanted to start students

Remarks

• Introduced more songs within a shorter frame because resources and routines have been set in place

on GarageBand but unfortunately the students only had access to some applications, so I had to wait till the next lesson to get them started.

I then gave instructions for HBL. Students had to complete a package on the SLS which allowed them to revisit P3 topics like the ukulele anatomy and chord fingerings. They also had access to videos on how to make a fretboard. With that, they were supposed to practise the fingerings at home before the next lesson.

Fig 5: Outline of module

Lesson 2 (F2F) and Home Practice

This was the students’ first lesson in the music room. I had to spend time on routines and expectations. I used screen mirroring (SM) to model and let students check their fingering. The first song was Something Just Like This which only

had two chords – F and Am. After they practised the song, I showcased some students using SM. At this juncture, I did not have time to introduce GarageBand because of time constraints. Also, as part of security, P4 students had to keep their PLDs in a locked cart before going for recess and I allocated time for that.

Subsequent lessons followed a similar pattern. Students would go back home and learn or practise a skill before coming to class.

Lesson 3 (F2F) and Home Practice

Finally, I was able to introduce GarageBand and its functions. I also sent students the project file for the three songs that we had covered so far so that they could go home and try out playing on GarageBand.

Fig 8 shows a student demonstrating the song Best Day of My Life through screen mirroring. This allows students to have a visual of when the chords change and also learn from their peers.

Lesson 4 (F2F) and HBL Flipped Classroom Lesson

Lesson 4 focuses on remediation and teacher intervention on their learning difficulties so far. I also got some students to share on the screen using their iPads from where they were seated. The students were super motivated and kept volunteering.

Fig 9 shows a student taking notes on the Books app using the markup function.

Moving forward, the following lessons would be based on learning the new repertoire. There are five songs, which would feature the G chord, a new chord they would have to learn:

• Faded

• It’s My Life

• Superman

• Fight Song

• This is Me

Prior to Lesson 5, students were to view the video recording of the teacher’s performance of the five songs. They were asked to try playing Faded on GarageBand using the file sent to them and see if they could figure out the G chord fingering by looking at the chord chart.

Lesson 5 (F2F)

Students were invited to demonstrate their playing of Faded on GarageBand through screen mirroring. I also introduced the G chord formally and after I checked on

some students, I appointed student leaders who were showing the correct fingering to check on their peers’ fingerings. This helped save some time. At the end of the lesson, I AirDropped the GarageBand files for the remaining four songs to the students.

With the files, and the routines set in place, I no longer formally gave instructions to students to practise on their own before coming to class.

Fig 6: HBL lesson on Padlet

Fig 7: Use of Screen Mirroring to demonstrate chords

Fig 9: Student taking their own notes on the Books app

Fig 8: Student demonstrating Best Day of My Life through screen mirroring

personal data protection)

Lesson 6 and 7 (F2F)

In Lesson 6 and 7, I worked with the students on the structure of the songs for It’s My Life, Superman Fight Song and This Is Me. At the end of Lesson 7, students were instructed to submit one of the five songs to perform and record their video. I noticed that many chose not to use the backing track.

This is a sample of students who videoed themselves playing on the GarageBand at home.

Lesson 8 (F2F)

For Lesson 8, I followed up with those who did not submit their work. I also gave feedback to those who submitted theirs, based on:

• Steady beat

• Chord fingering

• Changing chords in time

Moving forward, for the remainder of the module, students would be learning strumming patterns, as well as creating their own strumming pattern for the chorus segment of a song of their choice. There would be assessment, and they would be reflecting on their performance and giving feedback to their peers.

Teaching Strategies

I would like to share some strategies that I employed during the research.

• Using isolating skills, specifically of fingering, strumming and changing chords

• Using a backing track on GarageBand and allowing students to change the tempo so that they could manage and play to a steady beat

• Using a self-made fretboard, which although not ideal as compared to the actual instrument, helped to at least provide some form of opportunity to practise at home

Post-Module Survey Results

• Using Apple Classroom for classroom management and resource sharing. However, from Lesson 5 to 6 onwards, students became familiar with and used to the routines that I no longer needed to lock their screens

• Using Padlet for storage of resources like backing track and self-help videos

• Sticking stickers on the fretboard of the ukulele for those who had difficulty at the beginning with the G chord to provide a visual and an opportunity for them to train their muscle memory. Eventually most students did not need it and removed it.

Fig 10: Student recording their chosen song performance on Padlet (Faces are blurred for

Fig 11: Student’s performance of Superman on GarageBand

Identifying Chord Fingerings

As you can see, there is a general improvement in ukulele skills from the premodule survey to the post-module survey.

I also note that there has been an increase in confidence levels of students.

I also wanted to find out if students were using the tracks and carried out the flipped learning before coming for class, which they did, based on the survey results.

Challenges

• Live ukulele hands-on time was significantly less at the beginning

At the beginning of the module, I struggled with logistical issues and technical issues as it was also my first time using Apple Classroom. Hence, live ukulele hands-on sessions were significantly fewer at the beginning.

• Technical issues and classroom management

 Students disappearing from Apple Classroom

 Students found a way to unlock themselves by switching off and restarting their iPad

 Students being mischievous and hijacking screen mirroring moments

 Students trying to AirDrop each other photos and other random files

Hence, I had to constantly speak to the class about cyber wellness and values.

• Remembering G chord fingering was difficult for some students

Nearly half the class found it difficult to remember the G chord and had problems changing from other chords to the G chord. Hence, I used stickers, slowed down the tempo of the songs and simplified certain strumming patterns.

Teacher Reflections

• Students were motivated by the showcase element in class, and on a weekly basis I could see more people volunteering.

• The GarageBand files were a great initial support but students preferred to do without them eventually as they wanted to be in control of their own singing and tempo

• Some of the students who did not submit their work kept on insisting that it was because they did not have a ukulele at home. I think it is important to reframe their mindset about using whatever is available to them.

• Having the sticker for fingering helped many at the beginning, but it took several weeks for the students to eventually wean off it. Hence students really needed time to cope with the G chord.

• A lot of back-end time was spent on creating new resources (e.g. instructional videos, performance tracks, GarageBand tracks) and it was a steep learning curve.

• Perhaps I could have had a midpoint check for students so that I could check on their progress rather than waiting till the end. Even though I was constantly observing them every faceto-face lesson, if there was time, I think a midpoint check would also create awareness of their own progress.

Research Findings

Based on the post-module survey, students were able to do the following after the module:

• Demonstrate correct fingering for C, Am, F and G chords

• Strum to a steady beat

• Change chords on time

Isolating the skills increased the success rate of each individual skill and increased the students’ confidence. Flipping the learning allowed students to prepare themselves before coming for lessons. Ownership of learning falls into the hands of the student.

Conclusion

The use of flipped classroom in this project had several elements:

• Customisation of lessons according to ukulele skills

• Flipped learning

• Home-based practice before coming to class

One of the important findings of this study was that the flipped classroom has great potential to improve students’ skills in playing the ukulele. The study also showed that the flipped teaching method is suitable for introducing new chords and application to new repertoire, where students find it difficult to apply ukulele skills.

The research results confirmed that the different flipped classroom strategies have an impact in building a child’s confidence towards playing the ukulele.

Curriculum and Lesson Outline

Video Tutorials in Promoting Self-directed and Independent Learning for GarageBand Music Compositions

Woodgrove Primary School

Research Purpose and Questions

Research Purpose:

To investigate the impact of teachercreated tutorial videos in promoting self-directed and independent learning.

With the teacher creating these tutorial videos, the videos can better suit the scope of learning objectives and tone set (i.e. language, clarity, targeted group) for the students.

Research Questions:

z How do students learn by using the pre-recorded tutorial videos (i.e. flipped classroom)?

z How do the videos promote self-directed and independent learning among students?

Methodology

• Programme duration: 1-1.5 term, 30 minutes per lesson

• Target level: all Primary 5 classes, mixed progress for all classes

• Observed class for data collection: Primary 5A

Mode of data collection:

• Weekly video-recorded lessons (for teacher’s observation and reflection)

• Focus group discussion with about 15 students

• Teacher designs customised music composition module (using GarageBand) for the first time, and pre-records the tutorial videos for the module

• Teacher uploads the tutorial videos on the Student Learning Space (SLS) for students to watch and learn from home before, during and after each lesson (flipped classroom approach)

• During each lesson, teacher will brief the lesson objective for that particular lesson and show the tutorial videos briefly

• Face-to-face (F2F) lessons will focus on students’ hands-on experience, as well as troubleshooting and guidance by the teacher

Rationale:

• Flipped classroom saves instructional time

• Promote independent and self-directed learning

• Develop intrinsic motivation

• Provide customised lesson package based on learning objective and students’ needs and interests

Stage 1: Preparation and explanation Lesson 1 – Brief on the etiquette on using iPad and the expected behaviour Lesson 2 – Explore iPad GarageBand and the loops

Stage 2: Create drum rhythm Lesson 3 – Explore drum parts (Section A) Lesson 4 – Record drum beat for bars 1-8 (Section A) Lesson 5 – Record drum beat for bars 9-16 (Section A)

Stage 3: Create melodic phrases Lesson 6 – Insert loops (Section A)

Stage 4: Create rap (audio recording) Lesson 7 – Audio recording: rap (Section B)

5: Refinement and decoration Lesson 8 – Listen to audio recording, review and refine (Section B) Lesson 9 – Drum beat, fade-out and panning effect (Section C)

Sample SLS lesson materials

Fig 1: Screenshots of the SLS lesson uploaded for flipped classroom learning

Lesson Outline

Stage

Research Findings

Teacher’s Observations

• Students’ increasing motivation to watch tutorial videos in advance:

Video Tutorial

Video tutorial introduced the interface of GarageBand, how to create a different drum beat (rhythm) and how to change the complexity of the drum rhythm.

Student Work Sample

Due to Home-Based Learning (HBL), our students did not manage to complete everything and do further refinement as planned. Nonetheless, this is a student’s work in progress where she has already completed the drum beats, drum rhythm and added loops.

How would students’ work be assessed?

• Formative Feedback (by Teacher)

 During each lesson, while walking around to give guidance and help in troubleshooting, teacher would also give verbal feedback to students with regards to their workin-progress

 By emphasising the lesson objective (learning target) for the day, students were expected to complete/work towards the goal of the lesson (e.g. create drum rhythm for bars 1-8, insert appropriate loops, etc.)

 Teacher would use the “learning target” to act as a learning checklist when reviewing students’ work and give the necessary guidance. Concurrently, students would use the “learning target” as a learning checklist to monitor own progress

• Rubrics for Assessment

 When it was time for students to work on completing their track, rubrics were introduced and briefed to them before they continued to work on their track.

 Through the rubrics, students would be aware of the criteria and the expectation of a good track. Below are some of the criteria:

z Track created (i.e. structure and skeleton of the track created)

z Consideration and use of musical elements (e.g. rhythmic and melodic motifs, choice of loops, use of panning effect, fade-out effect, etc.)

z Theme appropriateness (i.e. whether the choice of loops and drum rhythm fit the theme)

 In order to get into hands-on experience as fast as one could during F2F lessons

 Due to teacher’s constant encouragement and reiteration of the importance

• The class looked forward to the lesson, including the use of iPads, and students were well engaged throughout the lesson:

 Due to learning GarageBand for the first time

 Also interested in hands-on experience of using the iPads

• Many students were able to work independently and manage various tasks well, based on their own learning pace

• Peer coaching helped students to learn from one another very quickly. However, this was disrupted in Term 3 due to heightened safe management measures (SMM)

• Upper primary students could master IT skills faster than lower primary students

• Some students started to struggle as the lessons progressed, as more musical layering was needed. Individual coaching by teacher was provided for students who needed help

Teacher’s Reflections – Challenges, Constraints and Strategies to Overcome

• Time constraints:

 In reality, each lesson was only about 15-20 minutes. Time was needed to issue assigned iPads and return iPads at the end of the lesson. Lessons had to end earlier to bring students down to recess and rush to another class

 Students must get individually assigned iPads for the whole module as they would be saving their own work in the iPad itself. Hence, the administrative time to issue the iPads was time-consuming

 Disruption to the schedule and lesson flow due to HBL

• Strategies to overcome:

 Trained student leaders to distribute iPads. With the help of student leaders and as the students were more familiar with the process, it was observed that the administrative time required during lessons was shortened

 Constantly encouraged students to watch the tutorial videos from home first (flipped learning approach)

• Hardware/IT device issues:

 iPads with flat battery due to high usage in school. Students had no choice but to work on another iPad, which was disruptive to workflow

 Loaning out of iPads during HBL period

 System requiring updates

 Fear of student work being deleted, as some students from other classes might accidentally delete others’ work

 Technical issues to Swivel recording resulted in some lessons not being recorded and disrupting collection of data and lesson observation

• Strategies to overcome:

 Students to share iPads when situation was appropriate

 Reminders sent to the whole level, reminding students not to delete others’ work

 Work with ICT team to regularly update the system on the iPads

Focus Group Discussion

Questions and Responses

Some of the questions include:

• Did you enjoy the programme? Why? What have you learnt?

• How do you learn in the module?

• What are some of the challenges you faced in the learning process?

• Do you feel that the tutorial videos in the SLS lesson help you in learning?

 If yes, how have the videos helped you in learning?

 If no, why?

• Do you find that the tutorial videos in the SLS lesson help you to learn by yourself and to learn at your own pace? Can you share your experience?

• Any suggestions to improve the programme?

Questions Student Responses (raw)

Did you enjoy the programme? Why? What have you learnt?

Do you feel that the explanatory videos in the SLS lesson help you in learning?

• If yes, how have the videos helped you in learning?

• If no, why?

Do you find that the explanatory videos in the SLS lesson help you to learn by yourself and to learn at your own pace? Can you share your experience?

What are some of the challenges you faced in the learning process?

• It is fun

• I can learn something new

• The rhythm and loops are very realistic

• I can make music by myself

Yes

• Can refer (to the videos) at home and anytime we want

• Can have more time to do (the hands-on activity) in class

• Help me to understand better

• Easy to understand

No (challenges)

• Class is noisy, cannot hear clearly

• The volume is soft

• Too many steps

• Make me understand better

• In class when teacher is attending to others, I can refer to the videos in the SLS to find answer by myself

• I can rewatch on my own when I forget the steps

• iPad is laggy, no battery, didn’t get to use iPads

• Many steps, confusing

• Too noisy from surroundings

• Cannot watch the tutorial videos (cannot log in to the SLS account)

Any suggestions to improve the programme?

• Make the sound of video louder

• Make it simpler

Additional feedback from other music teachers

• “I think this module is very engaging and interesting. Students are able to showcase their creativity and are engaged during the lessons. Students like to explore the ICT apps too. The videos are clear and easy to follow also. But I think it is a little bit challenging in terms of logistics. For a 30-minute lesson, they will usually have only about 15 minutes to compose. Sometimes, the app is downloading or their compositions were being deleted by other students. Then they would have to redo.”

• “Most students enjoy the module. It would be good if the tutorial videos could be recorded with louder volume.”

Conclusions

• Students generally enjoyed learning the module and found the tutorial videos helpful as they were able to learn independently and at their own pace.

• However, issues and challenges occurred, and they disrupted the learning process. These included lack of motivation to watch the video from home consistently, cannot log in to the SLS, hardware issue, noisy environment, the explanatory voice in the video was too soft.

• The videos helped students in independent learning (especially during face-to-face lessons when the teacher was not able to attend to everyone simultaneously) and some extent of self-directed learning (especially for students who were clear about the goal and were motivated to learn more).

Future considerations:

• Include main instructions in each tutorial video (to break down the instructions into multiple steps)

• Include subtitles

• Encourage all students to bring an earpiece for a better learning experience (in order to tackle the issue of a noisy background)

• Get feedback from students to include the areas that they are interested in learning (allowing for students’ choice)

• More F2F lessons (independent and self-directed learning) than flipped learning lessons

• Teacher’s verbal explanation in class plays a part

• Adding timestamps to the video

Flipped Classroom in a Music ICT Module to Enhance Learning

Introduction

We have been running our own GarageBand module for Primary 6 students. Previously, students would use the GarageBand app to create their own ostinato to accompany a given melody.

This year, we decided to leverage on the Student Learning Space (SLS) to enhance students’ learning. Students were tasked to create their own version of “Canon in C”, with given melodic lines and chord progressions. Students would decide on the rhythmic patterns and instrument choice, and record their version to a given tempo.

Inquiry Study Topic

This is an inquiry into a Primary 6 GarageBand module integrating online SLS lessons and face-to-face lessons in school.

Research Question

To what extent does the flipped classroom approach enhance students’ learning?

In enhancing students’ learning, we look into students’ readiness for the face-to-face music lessons, as well as students’ confidence level in using GarageBand independently.

Therefore, two other key questions came into our discussion:

• Does the flipped classroom approach help the students to be more ready for the lesson?

• Does the flipped classroom approach help the students to be more confident in using GarageBand?

The upper primary music lessons were 30 minutes each and often, we had to rush through the lesson, with students being unable to explore the app fully. Thus, we decided to embark on a flipped classroom approach which could maximise the time in class for students and minimise teacher instruction, allowing students to practise using GarageBand and to work on their project. We designed a course module on the SLS for the students. They would go through the module at home before coming in for the music lessons.

Methodology

We have selected three Primary 6 classes for this research, based on their ability levels.

1. Quantitative Data Collection

 Pre-module survey was conducted through form.gov.sg

 Post-module survey carried out with informal polls (verbal feedback/ hand-raising)

2. Qualitative Data Collection

 Informal observations while facilitating the face-to-face sessions

 Informal conversations while facilitating the face-to-face sessions

Curriculum

1. Navigating through the GarageBand functions

 Creating file, add/remove instruments, delete recordings

 Saving and renaming files

 Changing/finding instrument sound on the keyboard in GarageBand

 Adding new sections, recording in different sections

An SLS tutorial video was uploaded on this, serving as a revision as most students already had prior knowledge and experience creating music in GarageBand due to previous music modules in Term 1. Students would view the SLS lesson (Fig 1) prior to class, so that we would not need to go through the revision in class.

2. Recording Melody, Chords and Bass line

 Reading Chord Progression/ Melody lines

 Smart Instruments and autoplay function

Fig 1: Sample screenshot of SLS GarageBand revision lesson

The second part of the module is where we had the bulk of face-to-face lessons. Students would view the SLS tutorial video on Chord Progression (Fig 2) prior to the lesson, and do their recordings in class. Some students also revisited the tutorial videos on their own during music lessons, before they could complete the recording task.

During this second part of the module, we had the most number of students approaching us during face-to-face lessons for some form of assistance. After viewing the tutorials on the SLS, they would come to us to ask further questions as they felt unsure as to whether they were on the right track. However, as the lesson progressed, they became more adept, and some of the better ones were even able to advise their classmates on their projects.

3. Review of project recording

 Balancing of volume of different instruments

 Self-/Peer Assessment with provided rubrics

Most students were able to refine their recordings, after viewing the tutorial video on the SLS (Fig 3).

4. Submission

 Exporting and submitting on the SLS

Most students were able to export their work and submit on the SLS after viewing the tutorial on the SLS (Fig 4).

Findings

Based on our survey before the module, most students (80%) did not own an iPad and could only rely on the iPad in school to practise using the app and work on their project.

Qualitative Analysis

Informal Observations

1. Some students who had accessed the SLS course module at home still had to refer to the course content during face-to-face lessons.

 Upon further conversing with students, some of the common reasons included forgetting some of the content, and being unsure of why and how to use the information in class.

 However, as the music ICT module progressed, students mentioned that they would rewatch the videos whenever they were stuck. Over time, the number of students who referred to the SLS videos in face-to-face classes also decreased gradually.

2. Some students who had accessed the SLS course module at home were still unsure about the navigation of GarageBand and requested the teacher’s help.

 However, in comparison to past batches, the number of students who sought help from the teacher had decreased, even though teacher instruction did not increase.

Informal Conversations

1. Level of interest in the project affected the amount of time spent on engaging with the SLS course at home.

 An informal poll with the students showed that fewer students responded positively when asked about their level of interest. Common reasons included studying for examinations, or other prioritised interests and/or commitments. Most students with a lower interest ended up spending less time on the SLS tutorial videos and lessons.

2. Difficulty and scale of the project, and lack of experience in flipped classroom

 Without iPads at home, some students mentioned that it was more difficult for them to retain the knowledge as they could only have hands-on experience in school.

 Considering that this is their first attempt at the flipped classroom approach, most students felt that with more experience, they would be able to take on more projects with greater difficulty and scale.

Fig 2: Sample screenshots of the SLS Chord Progression lesson

Fig 3: Sample screenshot of SLS lesson on how to review and refine their recordings

Fig 4: Sample screenshot of the SLS lesson on how to export and upload their recordings on the SLS

Fig 5: Video of sample student work (GarageBand recording, final submission)

Click here to view sample

• From those who completed the SLS course module, majority of the students with iPads at home generally felt more prepared and confident as compared to students without iPads at home. The survey results support the qualitative analysis that they found it more difficult to retain the knowledge from the tutorial videos if they did not have iPads at home.

Quantitative Analysis

Analysis of Pre-/Post-Survey Findings

• There is a general increase in the confidence level of students in using GarageBand after accessing the SLS course module. The percentage of students who agreed/ strongly agreed, rose from 43% to 80%, after accessing the SLS course module.

• Students who fully engaged with the SLS course module were more prepared and ready for face-to-face lessons. 74% of students who completed the SLS course module felt prepared to attend face-to-face lessons, as compared to only 25% of the students who did not complete the SLS course module.

Discussions on Findings

Pros:

1. Most of the students were more prepared to attend the face-to-face lessons because they knew what to expect.

2. Flipped classroom minimised teacher instructions to some extent and allowed students to have more time with the GarageBand application in class.

Cons:

1. Not all students accessed and completed all the sections in the SLS course module

2. Students’ learning could have been further enhanced if students had their own iPads at home for them to practise navigating through GarageBand.

Conclusions

Most of the students felt more prepared for the face-to-face lessons after going through the flipped classroom approach. They were also more confident in using the GarageBand app compared to the past batches of students.

Using the flipped classroom approach in a GarageBand module could enhance students’

Considerations

• Spiral approach towards introducing new learning approaches

 Attempting a large-scale module, with the new flipped classroom approach, seemed like a big step for our students

 Teachers may consider only “flipping” one section or one lesson of the module, and monitor the progress along the way

• Addressing the possible gap in readiness and confidence level between:

 Students who did the flipped classroom and students who did not or were not able to

 Students who had iPads at home and students who did not have iPads at home

 Teachers might consider differentiated tasks and even differentiated assessments, based on readiness and confidence

learning to a large extent, in helping them to become more prepared for lessons and confident in using the GarageBand app. Students will also get more time on the iPads as teacher instruction can be minimised. Hence, teachers could consider incorporating the flipped classroom approach to enhance students’ learning.

SECTION 3

e-Pedagogy — Harnessing Technology in Music-making

New Possibilities for Engaging Students in Music-making

Rachel Han creates and examines a new framework, STACK, to help students gain confidence in songwriting.

80 90

Angela Kwan examines her self-created virtual resonator bells to enhance student learning.

Geraldine Lim investigates the use of body percussion tuning-in activities and explores its effects in increasing student engagement in her weekly lessons.

102

Grace Lee, Jocelyn Lau, Kwa Yan Teng and Sally Yong explored the use of Padlet, Song Maker and GarageBand to encourage students to be more intrinsically motivated in their music arrangement projects.

Usage of STACK Framework in Building Learner Confidence in Beginner Songwriting for Primary 6 Students Using GarageBand

Introduction

I wanted to increase learner confidence because I had quite a low success rate from my previous songwriting programme. When the programme was first conceptualised and implemented, many students gave feedback that it was not enjoyable. This was because there was an overload of information, and they did not have enough time to learn and ended up more confused than when they began.

I wanted my students to have a song to take away that described their emotions and state of mind in primary school,

particularly in Primary 6, and felt that gaining their confidence was key to the success of the programme.

STACK Framework

Based on the on-the-job experiences of both myself and other educators, coupled with various teaching approaches that have worked for many in the past, I created STACK.

STACK is an acronym that represents the priorities and focus that we teachers could look at to aid our students in gaining confidence. They consist of:

Successes in the learning process

Trust between the teacher and student, establishing a good rapport

Providing Access to all learners, so nobody would be left behind

Cooperative Learning, allowing students to learn from one another in a comfortable environment

Know student profiles and needs so that we could establish a connection with them at a level that they would be interested to learn

On-the-job Experiences

Successes in the Learning Process

Lesson Package

I decided to incorporate STACK into my songwriting package.

• Programme: P6 Songwriting Package

• Objective: Students to be confident to write one verse (lyrics and melody) for their song.

Here are the stages where I carry out my inquiry:

Stage 1: Pre-Programme Questionnaire

Stage 2: GarageBand Basics

Stage 3: Rhythm Improvisation

Stage 4: Melody Improvisation

Stage 5: Lyrics Writing

Stage 6: Lyrics to Melody

Stage 7: Submission

Fig 1: STACK framework

Rachel Han Kong Hwa School

2: Pre-Programme Questionnaire and Responses

Stage 1: Pre-Programme Questionnaire and Responses

To ensure that STACK was a good idea, I began with a pre-programme questionnaire. Below are the questions and student responses:

1. I am confident of writing and composing a pop song by myself.

2. I will feel more confident to write a song if it was broken down into very easy steps that I could easily succeed in. (PROGRESSIVE SUCCESSES)

3. My music teacher would make me feel more confident to learn about songwriting. (TRUST IN TEACHER)

4. I prefer to work with friends. (COOPERATIVE LEARNING)

5. I prefer to work individually.

6. I prefer to work with peers with similar music interests.

7. Option A: I would like to create the exact same song as my classmates, where everyone would use the same instruments, write the same type of song and work on the lyrics together. (KNOW LEARNER NEEDS)

8. Option B: I would like to have the option to create different songs from my classmates, where I can choose my own instrument, my own type of song and my own lyrics. (ACCESS TO ALL LEARNERS)

The data, therefore, revealed that:

• My students were not confident about songwriting.

• STACK, in theory, also seemed to be a good framework to assist them in building confidence.

• Therefore, I would continue with incorporating STACK into my P6 Programme.

Stage 2-4 in Programme

At Stage 2, students were taught GarageBand basics as a class and they explored GarageBand as individuals and inserted the backing track.

At Stage 3, they were given a specific rhythm “I Ate My Homework” (Ta, Ti-Ti, Ta, Ta) to clap to. They could change the words to change the rhythm.

At Stage 4, they had to replace their improvised rhythmic phrase with notes. They could choose any instrument that

they wanted within reason and could also choose from three different scales. They then created the melody using steps, leaps or a combination depending on their perceived ability level. I went around the class to get students to play their melodies with the backing track playing in the background. Subsequently, they recorded this improvisation for the teacher to assess.

After the assessment, I assigned compatibility pairs to classes that had a wide range of ability levels and profiles, and friendship pairs to the classes that were similar in their learning profiles.

Fig

Fig 2: Demonstration of Stage 2, 3 and 4 Click here to view recording

Findings for Stage 2, 3, 4

Student Feedback (through informal review and questions)

• Wanted more time to experience GarageBand and explore its instruments and sounds to be able to improvise a melody (ended up needing four weeks for two classes)

• Felt that even if they were not adept, they could still succeed because there were different scales they could choose depending on their perceived skillset

• It was very fun during the improvisation round but also very stressful; they felt they were making music as a class

• Felt more confident because there were parameters provided, and as long as they hit them they were able to improvise something

Teacher Feedback (through journaling and reflections)

• Must be extremely clear with parameters provided

• A lot of time constraints – only 30 minutes a lesson (establishing routines with SMM already took two lessons)

In conclusion, my students felt more confident because they were able to

choose different options based on their skill level – some were seasoned music composers, while some had never done it before. Providing parameters like ending with a “Do” (or C) was great because every student had an endpoint, and they were able to achieve success in a quick time.

For me as a teacher, the parameters needed to be very clear. I went quite fast for the first class I attempted, and later on, they told me to go slower. This would not have happened if the students did not have a level of trust and confidence in me. I started all over again with them, being very specific with the parameters,and they managed to succeed quite quickly afterwards. There was also time constraint because we were only allocated 30 minutes of music each week at the upper primary level.

Stage 5-7 in Programme

After assessing their work, I had two classes in compatibility pairs, two classes in friendship pairs and another class that went solo because they were not task-focused and thus could not work in pairs.

Each partner had individual accountability for a certain task, and worked together to contribute to creating the eventual melody. This was the start of cooperative learning. Learners continued to have the autonomy to choose their instruments, scale, theme and lyrics (as long as appropriate).

At Stage 5 (Fig 3), the students began writing the lyrics in their pairs. They would decide on a theme together and based on their strengths, A would be in charge of the lyrics, and B would be in charge of ensuring that the lyrics were cohesive and followed a good rhyming scheme. I would mark them and provide suggestions and changes if required.

At Stage 6, we converted the lyrics into melodies by drawing the melodic line based on their narration’s intonation. A would be in charge of drawing the melodic line, while B would choose the notes. Afterwards, they recorded the melody, ensuring that the melodic line and notes followed what was created.

Finally, they would submit their works and we would review the programme together in the form of questionnaires and a feedback dialogue session.

Here is an example of a work from a friendship pair (Fig 4). You can see the melody contour drawn out by one partner, and the notes written by the other. This pair spoke out the lyrics on top of the music. They then converted it to a melody line on the virtual keyboard.

Many of the pairs also used the drawn-out melodic line as a guide (Fig 5) and wanted to just sing out the melody without playing it on the virtual keyboard.

This is an example of a solo work (Fig 6). Looking at the overall picture, there was not much of a difference, but the class that did solo work insisted that they would be happier if they could work with a friend.

Fig 3: Demonstration of Stage 5, 6 and 7 Click here to view recording

Fig 4: Example 1 from a friendship pair

Fig 5: Example 2 from a friendship pair

Click here to view recording

Findings for Stage 5, 6, 7

Student Feedback (through informal review and questions)

• A few compatibility pairs did not work well together and there was a personality mismatch.

• For friendship pairs – they insisted that they enjoyed and loved working with their friends. The roles were also defined well, so they all had tasks to do.

• Felt that it was very challenging and laborious to map out lyrics to melody and many wished for an easier shortcut, causing it to be quite stressful for many at the beginning, especially because there were only two or three lessons dedicated to it.

• A large majority asked for more examples that would help them from start to finish.

• A handful of requests that the lyrics be written to one theme (i.e. providing less ambiguity and more parameters).

Teacher Feedback (through journaling and reflections)

• Did not particularly like friendship pairs because they took some time to be on task as they were with their best friends. Had to change one class to do solo work, and the solo work class performed better than the rest (but wished constantly for pair work).

• Compatibility pairs were not paired with friends of similar interests, but peers in the class with similar interests. Most of them got along and did what they were told but were insecure working with people they were not comfortable with. Will no longer use this moving forward.

• Very time-intensive because students needed more time, but we were constantly running out of time.

In conclusion, my students felt more confident because there was a common direction towards mapping out their melody, especially if they were clueless. Some students even requested that everyone work on the same theme, but were met with objections from the rest of the class. Nevertheless, they all found the melody mapping very laborious and stressful and wanted more examples. However, more examples would take up more class time.

My students loved working with their friends, but I found that when they were excited to be with their friends, it took them some time to be on task. I needed to constantly give them checkpoints for each lesson. They also said that because they had different roles in cooperative learning, they all knew they had to do something and no single person was doing all the work in the pairs. Also, because they helped each other along the way, they gained confidence in the act of coaching their friends as well!

Compatibility pairings, on the other hand, seemed to work and the pairs did what they were told, but the feedback from the learners was negative because they did not feel comfortable with my assigned pairings. Songwriting is quite personal and they just couldn’t create something from the heart. One case that struck a chord in me was a boy and a girl that were paired together who had such a huge personality clash that the girl ended up very upset and was scared to proceed. I ended up having to split them up. I would not use compatibility pairings in future. In theory, it would work, but I did not factor in how they felt about each other could get in the way of their learning and I do not wish to see a student affected like the girl was again.

Post-Programme Review

After the programme was completed, I conducted a post-programme review and here are the findings.

I am more confident of writing and composing a pop song by myself compared to when I first started.

Before the programme, my students showed a little hesitation and had no confidence in songwriting. But after the programme, I had about 86% of “yes” responses of being more confident. I can safely say “phew!”, and using STACK as a starting framework to gain learner confidence in songwriting has been successful to a larger extent.

The second part of the questionnaire lists the various STACK components that I asked my students to rank in order of helpfulness of gaining their confidence in learning (Fig 8). Each rank was given a score and the scores were added up to determine the overall ranks.

Overall, what got the highest rank is the rapport and trust between the student and the teacher. That made me quite happy knowing that my role as a teacher was significant! Then, “we had more time” and “small successes” tied in second place.

Fig

RANK 1 My music teacher would make me feel more confident to learn about songwriting. (TRUST IN TEACHER)

RANK 2 More time to experiment, explore and create with GarageBand.

I will feel more confident to write a song if it was broken down to very easy steps that I could easily succeed in.

(PROGRESSIVE SUCCESSES)

RANK 3 Different options that I can choose based on my ability level.

(ACCESS TO ALL LEARNERS/KNOWING LEARNER NEEDS AND PROFILE)

RANK 4 Having a friend to work with. (COOPERATIVE LEARNING)

My students constantly lamented that they needed more time, as did I. Moving forward, I would have to tweak some aspects of the programme to ensure maximum efficiency and success!

In third place was being able to choose different options. And finally, having a friend to work with was last, but not least.

Limitations and Challenges

• School’s dynamic ever-changing environment: Lesson Disruptions

All mental health talks and PSLE briefings used PE, Art and Music lessons.

Lost two classes and some lessons due to changes in deployment.

Said class that had lessons taken over by another teacher later on responded that they did not understand some parts that he had gone through. The future programme must have specific and clear examples that will be easy to follow.

90% of students did not enjoy Music Compatibility Pairs and wanted a friend to work with, but highlighted that some of their friends would not do any work.

• The Pandemic/Endemic

The school had to close at one point as a few students contracted COVID.

Students did not have their compositions at home and were unable to work on them. There was a large gap in the continuity when they returned, and I had to start again.

• From the entire GarageBand Programme

My students and I were overly ambitious.

I would in future simplify the programme in the lyric writing and melody conversion part – all students could do the same lyrics for each class, and only one verse.

Discussion and Conclusion

After analysing all of the feedback, I also made some changes to the STACK framework that I had created. It is now STTACK (Fig 9), with the incorporation of exploration time, which was ranked the most important to my students.

In addition, for cooperative learning, I have also decided to downsize it for next year, incorporating bite-sized cooperative learning to learn how to apply the theory and concepts in a fun way. These pairings would also NO LONGER include compatibility pairs – only friendship or solo –if they deemed that was better for them.

And the final change that I would be making, with much resistance from all of my research in general – was that concepts and theories could be learnt in a cooperative learning approach, but when it came to creating their songs, I would want my students to do them individually, to ensure that the songwriting was more personal to create a better emotional

connection for themselves. This is evident from that one class that ended up doing solo work for songwriting. They produced a lot of meaningful lyrics that was wonderful to look at and learn from. I know that others might disagree with me on the change to have songwriting done in a solo context because many studies had success with cooperative learning.

However, I believe that in the context of songwriting, my students would be able to gain more confidence by themselves if they could create a song that was personal to them. Working in pairs, many of them expressed worry and stress from writing personal lyrics with their friends for fear of judgement. Being comfortable with oneself is a journey that many of us, even I as an adult, do not have!

In the meantime, I will continue to transform the external environment as much as I can to ensure inclusivity and no judgement, but it is truly up to my students’ sense of self, which is influenced not just by the external environment or solely within the music classroom.

STTACK

Successes in the Learning Process More varied examples of songwriting would aid students with more success.

Incorporate Cooperative Learning

Fig 8: Ranking of STACK components in order of helpfulness

Fig 9: New and revised STTACK framework for songwriting

Students should pair up with a trusted friend in class. Bite-sized cooperative learning should be incorporated to learn concepts and theory in a fun way.

Songwriting should NOT be done with said partner. It should be done by themselves.

Use of Digital Music Instruments in the Learning of Resonator Bells

Angela Kwan

Cantonment

Primary School Introduction –Literature Review

Digital technologies have fundamentally changed the ways that music may be taught and learnt. Children are growing up in a digital and multimodal environment that shapes their music preferences (Kokkidou, 2018). In that context, the incorporation of new technologies and

digital media in music lessons can offer new and extended ways of music teaching and learning. A digitally infused notion of music education provides meaningful music-making opportunities to students and teachers through enhancing accessibility to music and transforming teacher-directed instruction to learnercentred instruction (Gouzouasis & Bakan, 2011).

Enhance

• Enhances accessibility to music, as well as to music-making

• Jamming alone and with friends

• Composing is as easy as pushing a button

• Collective online songwriting

• Playing “by ear”

• New compositional processes Transform

• Transforms teacher-directed instruction into learner-centred instruction

• GarageBand replaces stage band

• Composing becomes a recording process

• Teaching music becomes facilitating music-making

• 21st-century popular music repertoire

Retrieve

• Revived music-making in new ways through informal musicking, file sharing in a global recording studio

• The (re)birth of the age of the self-publishing musician and creation of global distribution networks

• Social networking and sharing of music

• Playing music and playing musically

Obsolesce

• Pushes aside traditional music-making practices, traditional repertoire, traditional teaching approaches

• Western music notation becomes more and more unnecessary and goes the way of hieroglyphs “music teachers” or “music guides”?

Based on Gouzouasis and LaMonde’s (2005) model (Fig 1) for understanding digital music-making as a pedagogical practice, my research will focus on the following:

• Enhance students’ learning through the access of virtual resonator bells to complement Orff lessons

• Transform teacher’s directed learning during face-to-face teaching into self-directed learning via Scratch

Research Question:

To what extent does the use of digital music instruments created using Scratch, such as virtual resonator bells, enhance students’ learning of instruments during music lessons?

In another journal article, Julia et al. (2019) investigated the use of Scratch1, a programming application, in controlling music production through a computer keyboard. Through Scratch, educators can record the sound of any musical instrument and introduce it to the learners. Therefore, instructors of traditional musical instruments can use Scratch for technologybased teaching needs without eliminating the acoustic sound character of traditional musical instruments (Julia et al., 2019).

xxxxxx x

Methodology

Timeline

Pre-Test Survey

Gather information, assess students’ ability to perform prior to teaching (unable to perform song 1 yet)

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Teaching

Formative Assessment

Assess students’ ability to perform song 1 after teaching (ungraded)

Each class is assigned as a test group. All groups (i.e. all classes) to be taught in class with same lesson plan. two groups (i.e. two classes) with access to virtual resonator bells

Analysis & Conclusion

Analyse results and draw conclusion from study

Post-Test Survey

Gather information from students

Fig 1: Digital music making as a pedagogical practice (Gouzouasis & Bakan, 2011), application from Gouzouasis and LaMonde’s (2005) model for understanding music-making

Student Grouping

• Test groups are selected by classes, based on circumstantial situations like presence of HBL lessons.

• Groups 1 and 2 had opportunities for Home-Based Learning (HBL) in May, and therefore had access to virtual resonator bells and the pre-test survey prior to the start of the lessons.

• Group 2 had additional Zoom lessons as they were on HBL during Term 3.

Access to virtual resonator bells (for home practice, self-directed learning)

HBL (Zoom lessons) (use in class, self-directed learning)

Resonator Bells Resources

My Resonator Bell

Pre-Test Survey Questions

1. What instruments do you know how to play?

2. If you know how to play other instruments, how long have you been playing them?

3. How much do you agree that learning resonator bells is difficult?

4. Which would you think is more useful to help you practise resonator bells more at home?

 Paper resonator bells

 Virtual resonator bells

Additional:

1. Did you manage to play Lazy Pony?

Class Schedule

Even though Group 1 was not placed on HBL, the group still faced many interruptions in their schedule due to other school events and public holidays, therefore having the least number of lessons compared to Group 2.

Resonator Bells Resources

4: Video demonstration of virtual resonator bells Click here to view recording

Post-Test Survey Questions

1. For August, I have tried the virtual resonator bells:  At least 10 times, 5-9 times, 3-4 times, 1-2 times, none

2. What are the reasons that encouraged you to use the virtual resonator bells or not to use the virtual resonator bells?

3. Are there any improvements we could make to the virtual resonator bells so that you would use them more?

4. Currently, not every class has the chance to use the virtual resonator bells. Do you think other students/ classes should have the chance to use them too? Why or why not?

As you can see in Fig 4, the virtual resonator bells can be played in three ways:

• Using the mouse to click on the bars

• Typing specific keys on the keyboard

• Touching the bells on a touchscreen Scratch and its virtual resonator bells have been proven to be a very versatile application. It can be used on computers, across different mobile devices and on different operating systems.

Fig 2: Paper template of resonator bells, printed on students’ music booklet

Fig 3: Virtual resonator bell, created on Scratch made available to students via the SLS

Fig

Data Analysis

Pre-Survey Findings

Profile of students

• The majority of students had some form of music background with a varied number of years of experience on an instrument learnt outside of curriculum time.

• One-quarter of the students only had experience with the instruments taught in class like various classroom percussion instruments (excluding resonator bells).

Preference: Paper or virtual bells for practice

• Most students (70%) indicated that they would prefer using the virtual resonator bells for practice although there was also a significant number of students that indicated a preference for the paper resonator bell template (27%).

Perceived difficulty of learning resonator bells

• Most students were neutral about learning resonator bells; they did not have a preference as to whether they found it more difficult or less difficult.

• Slightly more than a quarter of the students found the learning difficult; slightly less than a quarter found the learning easy.

Post-Survey Findings

Impressions of virtual resonator bells

• After students used the virtual resonator bells, about 86% of the students would recommend others to use it. This included the students who previously had no preference or preferred the paper resonator bell template.

• About 14% of the students would not recommend the use of the virtual resonator bells. This would be discussed later, in the Discussion section.

Fig 7: Students’ preference

Fig 7: Students’ impressions

Frequency of usage in a month

• In Group 2, a significant number of students used the virtual resonator bells twice a week. This could be due to the need to use the virtual resonator bells in their HBL Zoom lessons.

• In Group 1, while they had access to the virtual resonator bells, they did not need to use it in a HBL Zoom class setting, as it is used by students more in a self-directed learning situation at home. Thus, there was less frequency of usage in Group 1.

Reasons for recommending it to others

• Surprisingly, for the students who would recommend the use of the virtual resonator bells to others, most of them did it not because it was user-friendly or easy to use, but rather, they felt it would be fairer to let others who did not have

access to the virtual resonator bells have the opportunity to use it. Other reasons included it being fun and interesting.

• Some students found the virtual resonator bells difficult to use, but would still recommend them to others to use.

Reasons for using it

• Most students found it easy to use and generally found it fun or interesting. Some students also found it easy to access, with one student commenting on how he was able to save the link to the virtual resonator bells to access it more easily.

• Some students found

Discussion

• 86% of the students who tried the virtual resonator bells would recommend it to other students, even if they might have preferred the paper template version initially. This implies that the students believed that the virtual resonator bells would be beneficial to others.

• T he majority of the class that had HBL Zoom lessons with virtual resonator bells ( 38%) recommended the virtual resonator bells due to positive user experiences like “fun and interesting”. This could be because they had more exposure to the virtual resonator bells in class.

• In addition, the majority of the class that had access to it but not the HBL Zoom lessons (47%) recommended the virtual resonator bells too, due to equality and fairness. While they had lesser exposure to the virtual resonator bells in class, they felt like they would want others to have more or at least equal exposure.

Fig 10: Students’ reasons for recommending to others

• Out of the nine students who did not recommend the virtual resonator bells:

 One student did not want to recommend it as he wanted to use it for himself.

 Two students feared that the virtual resonator bells would replace the physical instrument in class and they would prefer using the actual ones in school. They had misunderstood that the virtual resonator bells were meant to be complementary to the lesson and to enhance their learning, instead of removing the physical resonator bells in school and moving on to virtual ones.

 One student was worried that it might be spoilt.

 Two students found it difficult to use.

 Three students had no specific reason.

• While having HBL Zoom lessons for virtual resonator bells increases the frequency of using it, it also increases the frequency of students facing difficulties in using it.

 Nine students who had HBL Zoom lessons found it difficult to use. The reason could be due to the struggle with having multiple tabs on-screen, showing both Zoom and the virtual resonator bells. The original intention of the virtual resonator bells was as a tool for self-directed practice at home, and not to be used over Zoom lessons. Some of the more privileged students were able to solve this by using multiple devices, one for Zoom and another for the virtual resonator bells.

Limitations of Study

• The number of lessons per class (group) was not the same, due to the COVID-19 situation and the non-schooling days

• Not all students might have access to technological devices that would allow them to access the virtual resonator bells at home to supplement their learning of the physical instrument in class

• Lag in the responsiveness of the virtual resonator bells which does not allow it to run multiple commands at one time

• Varied motivation in the students to engage in self-directed learning outside of curriculum time

Conclusions

• The virtual resonator bells is useful to a large extent in enhancing the students’ learning of the resonator bells, especially in the everchanging landscape due to its user-friendliness and ease of accessibility.

• Many students found the virtual resonator bells fun and interesting.

• Coupled with Zoom sessions and more structured instructions on how to use the bells during the Zoom session, the students would have more guided opportunities to use it.

References

• Gouzouasis, P., & LaMonde, A. M. (2005). The use of tetrads in the analysis of arts-based media. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 6 (4), 1-14.

• Gouzouasis, P., & Bakan, D. (2011). The future of music making and music education in a transformative digital world. The University of Melbourne refereed e-journal, 2, 127-154.

• Julia, J., Iswara, P. D., & Supriyadi, T. (2019). The utilization of Scratch application in making music controller to introduce traditional musical instruments. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1402 077011. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1402/7/077011

• Kokkidou, M. (2018). Postmodernism, music literacies, and the function-oriented music curriculum. Visions of Research in Music Education 32.

Use of Body Percussion Activities to Promote Students’ Engagement in Music Lessons

Introduction

Geraldine Lim New Town Primary School

In New Town Primary School, we believe that every child can learn and wants to learn. For our students to learn well and continue learning after leaving school, we believe in developing our students to be responsible learners and active contributors and to have enquiring minds and a determined spirit.

In this study, I define student engagement as the amount of time and effort students invest in participating and learning activities displayed in three dimensions (Fig 1):

• Emotional – how the students feel about the experience

• Behavioural – how attentive or active the students are

• Cognitive – how intrinsically motivated or invested the students are

Student engagement is important because it is linked to increased student achievement. When teachers use strategies that capture students’ attention and actively involve them in the learning process, there is an increase in student achievement.

There are a lot of factors that influence students’ engagement in music lessons. One of them is the use of songs during the lesson. However, it is observed that as students moved up to higher levels of their study, they seemed to lose interest in music and are less willing to engage in singing.

Research Motivation/ Identifying Gaps

When I was teaching my classes, I noticed that there were two gaps that I wanted to close.

1.Diverse learners with different engagement levels

I noticed that low progress learners gave up easily when they were faced with challenging activities. At the same time, students with music knowledge might not feel challenged. These students might not be intrinsically motivated in music learning.

Therefore, decided to focus on:

• Finding activities that do not require learning an instrument or reading notes on music scores

• Doing something that everyone can do, yet still challenging

• Not about learning an instrument, therefore use body percussion

• Working towards creating their body percussion rhythms to a song that they will play on boomwhackers

2.Short duration and limited interaction with students

As we only have 30 minutes per week for our lessons, I decided to:

• Find songs that students enjoy so they are excited, ready and motivated to learn

• Create a safe environment where it is okay to make mistakes

• Get students to do body percussion tuningin to make full use of the 30-minute lesson

Other Considerations

• Actively interested

• Recommendations

Cognitive Behavioural Emotional

• Motivated to succeed

• Commitment to stay

ENGAGEMENT

• Discretionary effort

• Striving for excellence

Additional questions I asked myself upon reflection:

z What are some difficulties/challenges faced during music lessons?

z What do students enjoy about body percussion that will engage and prepare them for learning?

z How can I measure student engagement levels?

z What other activities will appeal to students such that they will be interested in learning what is being taught in music lessons?

Research Topic

Objective: To examine the relationship between the use of rhythmic body percussion in stimulating students’ interest in music. Purpose: To find out if students will be more engaged in music lessons through the use of body percussion tuning-in activities.

Curriculum

• Two Primary 5 classes

• To use four songs at the start of the lesson (approximately five minutes) over 10 weeks

• These four songs incorporate different rhythms and body percussion

• Learning Outcome and Summative Task: Students to create rhythmic body percussion to accompany the song played on boomwhackers

Fig 1: The three dimensions of student engagement (Davis, Summers, & Miller, 2012)

Methodology

Pre- and Post-Questionnaires were given to survey two Primary 5 classes (Group A and Group B).

Group A (32 students)

Pre-Questionnaire Questions and Findings

Name : ___________________( ) Class P5 - ___

What do you understand about body percussion? Can you list some examples of body percussion?

Tick the box that best describes how you feel about each statement.

1. I like to do fun activities in music class.

2. The use of body percussion can increase my interest in music class.

3. Music lessons will be more enjoyable if there are fun body percussion activities.

Findings

Open-ended question on prior knowledge: Almost all students were able to give examples of body percussion.

• Snapping fingers

• Tapping laps

• Clapping

• Tapping head

• Stomping feet

Fig 2: PreQuestionnaire

Survey Questions

Question 1 (64 responses)

I like to do fun activities in music class.

Group A 4.142 on 5-point Likert scale

Group B 3.57 on 5-point Likert scale

From Q1, we can see that both groups wanted to do fun activities in music lessons.

Question 2 (64 responses)

The use of body percussion can increase my interest in music class.

Group A 3.28 on 5-point Likert scale

Group B 2.94 on 5-point Likert scale

From Q2, we can see that Group B was not so keen on body percussion, but was still willing to try it out.

Question 3 (64 responses)

Music lessons will be more enjoyable if there are fun body percussion activities.

Group A 3.76 on 5-point Likert scale

Group

Similar to Q2, Group B was not so keen on body percussion, but Group A seemed optimistic about the inclusion of body percussion in music lessons.

• Group A: Nine very enthusiastic about body percussion, one strongly disagree about body percussion

• Group B: Three very enthusiastic about body percussion, five strongly disagree about body percussion

• About 30% of students prefer to take a neutral view

Conclusion

Students are not averse to body percussion, some enjoy it and are interested, but to a certain extent.

Here is an example of my class playing along to Best Day of My Life.

Body Percussion Tuning-in

Activity

The four songs chosen were arranged progressively such that students could try more challenging rhythms as they progress. At the start of the lesson, before the body percussion song video is played, I would briefly show the rhythms and body percussion that would be used. Below are videos and images of the rhythms and body percussion used for each song.

Post-Questionnaire Questions and Findings

After 10 weeks, a post-questionnaire was administered to find out about the effectiveness of the body percussion tuning-in activities in the lesson.

Name : ___________________( )

Class : P5 - ___

Tick the box that best describes how you feel about each statement. Strongly Agree AgreeNeutralDisagree Strongly Disagree

1.I like to do fun activities like body percussion in music class.

2.The use of body percussion has increased my interest in music class.

3.I feel more prepared for and attentive during music lessons after we do body percussion activities.

4.Music lessons will be more enjoyable if there are fun body percussion activities.

5.I am more likely to listen attentively to the song and feel the beat while doing body percussion activities.

6.I am interested to create my own rhythms to accompany other songs using body percussion.

How would you rate your progress in doing body percussion activities?

Do you think body percussion activities help you improve on other musical skills? Why or why not?

What do you remember or enjoy most with the inclusion of body percussion activities in music lessons?

Which lesson did you remember or enjoy most with the inclusion of body percussion activities in music lessons?

Fig 4: Sample class body percussion video to Best Day of My Life

Fig 5: Post-Questionnaire Survey Questions

1. Blinding Lights Body Percussion 2.BTS Dynamite Body Percussion

Pat Pat Pat Pat Snap Snap Clap Clap

Stomp Stomp Chest Chest Rest

3. Best Day of My Life Body Percussion

Dance Monkey Body Percussion

Stomp Stomp

Fig. 3: Songs and their assigned rhythms and body percussion

Click here to view recording

• Q1, 2 and 4 were the same questions as those stated in the pre-questionnaire to see if there was a change in students’ views.

• Q3 was asked to find out if they felt more energised and ready for the lesson.

• Q5 was a general question about feeling the beats of the music.

• Q6 was a question about extension activities that the lessons are moving towards. The other open-ended questions were for me to understand if they found the activities helpful and if they enjoyed them.

Key Learning #1

Student readiness improved as students were keen to be challenged and stretched.

Evidence:

• Fewer discipline issues and off-task behaviour in class

• Easy for everyone to follow as body percussion rhythms involved simple rhythms

• For higher progress students, although the rhythms might not be very challenging, it was more of a coordination challenge

Personal Thoughts:

How does body percussion contribute to the increased enthusiasm in the next learning activity of the lesson?

• Change in class climate

• Body percussion tuning-in activities get students moving and allow them to channel their energies into the song

• They practised active listening as they listen out for the beat and rhythm of the song

• Many of them were very engaged and stayed focused, resulting in less off-task behaviour

• This increase in engagement also helped to create a more positive classroom environment as I noticed myself affirming them rather than pointing them out negatively

Findings

Student Readiness

Comparing with the findings from the pre-questionnaire, it was observed that the ratings increased for both groups.

Engagement and Enjoyment

On a whole, students seem to enjoy being able to move to the beat and use body percussion to accompany the song. This increases their skill of listening out for the beat of the song and it also helps them to internalise the rhythms that they play, leading them to make connections to what they have learnt in music lessons.

Fig 7: Responses for PostQuestionnaire Q4 and 5

Q5. I am more likely to listen attentively to the song and feel the beat while doing body percussion activities.

Group

Q4. Music lessons will be more enjoyable if there are fun body percussion activities.

Group A 4.28 out of 5-point scale (SA - 14, A - 11, N - 2, D - 2, SD - 0)

Group

Key Learning #2

Student engagement and enjoyment during lessons increased, as songs used in body percussion tuning-in activities appealed to them, arousing interest.

Evidence:

• Increase in wanting to have body percussion activities to prepare themselves for music lessons as shown in open-ended Q3

What I enjoy most was using body percussion with music. It was so fun.

I enjoy when we get to learn body percussion through song.

I like the teamwork and coordination.

I enjoyed the part when we did Blinding Lights by The Weeknd because he is one of my favourite artists.

The whole class was very happy and I like it when they’re happy.

The sound we made together. Everything!

Going to the music room and the whole class doing it together.

8: Students’ responses to PostQuestionnaire open-ended Q3 – “What do you remember or enjoy most with the inclusion of body percussion activities in music lessons?” Personal thoughts, after reading students’ responses:

• Music is a social activity that provides the opportunity to build unity and togetherness when students are engaged in hands-on lessons such as the body percussion activities.

• This also helped in building a positive classroom environment where students are empowered to perform the given rhythms to the song.

• Students enjoyed making music and being part of the music.

Confidence

Q6. I am interested to create my own rhythms to accompany other songs using body percussion.

Group A 3.24 out of 5-point scale (SA - 6, A - 3, N - 15, D - 2, SD - 3)

Group B 3.18 out of 5-point scale (SA - 5, A - 7, N - 14, D - 5, SD - 3)

Overall 3.21 out of 5-point scale (SA - 11, A - 10, N - 29, D - 7, SD - 6)

As the summative task was to let students create rhythmic body percussions to accompany the song played on boomwhackers, the responses in Fig 9 show that there are a couple of students who were still apprehensive about creating their own body percussion rhythms. This is a gauge of the level of confidence of students in creating their own rhythms.

Key Learning #3

Students exhibited increased confidence and focus.

Evidence:

• In open-ended Q2, students gave the following responses relating to increased confidence and focus:

Yes because we can use the body percussion to improve on other musical skills by following the beat. Thus, we don’t go out of beat.

Yes because it keeps me confident and focused.

Yes. I feel that body percussion makes me more alert in music.

Yes because it can make u be an active listener.

• Students also reflected and shared that they were more ready for the next activity.

Yes because using the body to feel the music is a great exercise for our body.

Fig 10: Students’ responses to PostQuestionnaire open-ended Q2 – “Do you think body percussion activities help you improve on other musical skills? Why or why not?”

Fig

Fig 9: Responses for Post-Questionnaire Q6

Personal Thoughts:

As I go through the body percussion activity, I noticed that students would start conversations about rhythms, and this allows for revision of what has been taught before, such as:

• Why are there two hand symbols in one box? (revise ti-ti rhythm)

• What is that hat sign? (referring to 4-beat rest)

• What is that lightning sign? (referring to 1-beat rest)

This helps in activating prior knowledge.

Limitations of Research

• Some students were not comfortable moving their bodies, as they felt socially awkward

• Sample size may be small in analysing the effectiveness of body percussion activities

• Duration window: may need a longer period to observe patterns

• Lessons were affected by the change of timetable, Home-Based Learning and Public Holidays, students on Leave of Absence/ Quarantine Order

• Limited songs with a variety of body percussion rhythms

• The use of singing and movement around the class was avoided due to the current COVID-19 situation

Conclusion

Going back to the Singapore Curriculum Philosophy and New Town’s learning disposition,

“We believe that every child wants to and can learn. When children find meaning in learning, they are motivated and challenged, and take ownership of their learning.”

As teachers, we must understand our students’ motivation to design lessons that will engage them not only on the behavioural dimension but also on cognitive and emotional aspects.

We can direct them towards being intrinsically motivated by providing appropriate resources and activities for them to achieve small success and gain confidence along the way.

The use of these popular songs with body percussion activities proved to be appropriately challenging and inclusive, and were therefore able to engage students in all three aspects of student engagement, as seen in the three key learnings:

• Key Learning #1: Student Readiness (Behavioural)

• Key Learning #2: Student Engagement and Enjoyment (Emotional)

• Key Learning #3: Increased Confidence and Focus (Cognitive)

Cognitive Engagement

Behavioural Engagement

Students exhibit effort, in following the rhythm, enjoy the challenge of hard work and value the process of learning. Students participate in an autonomous learning environment leading to fewer discipline issues. They develop independence as they commit themselves to persist and build their resilience to cope with failure and setbacks.

Emotional Engagement

Through critical inquiry, I learnt how body percussion tuning-in activities can promote students’ engagement, leading to an increase in their motivation to learn.

Moving forward, I would like to create some resources on body percussion and use that as tuning-in activities for future lessons. I would also like to explore the possibility of having blended learning body percussion activities, to give students opportunities to try it at home where musicking can take place.

A positive classroom culture and a safe environment is created. Students can take risks in trying out something different, learn from one another and be more confident in expressing their ideas through body percussion.

References

• Davis, H. A., Summers, J. J., & Miller, L. M. (2012). An interpersonal approach to classroom management: Strategies for improving student engagement. Corwin Press.

• H armer, J. (2009). The practice of English language teaching (4th edition) Pearson Longman.

• J imbo Caicedo, P. E., & Lojano Lojano, V. S. (2013). Songs and Games as a Tool to Foster English Learning to Children at The Fifth Level of Basic Education: Class Validation at José Rafael Arizaga Elementary School. http://dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec/ bitstream/123456789/4329/1/TESIS.pdf

• M cPherson, G. E., & McCormick, J. (2006). Self-efficacy and music performance. Psychology of Music, 34 (3), 322-336.

• Patton, M. Q., & Cocharn, M. (2002). A Guide to Using Qualitative Research Methodology. Médecins Sans Frontières, Paris. https://evaluation.msf.org/sites/ evaluation/files/a_guide_to_using_qualitative_research_methodology.pdf

Fig 11: Positive student outcomes when students are engaged in all three dimensions

The Use of Music Technology to Increase Students’ Intrinsic Motivation in Music Lessons

Grace Lee, Jocelyn Lau, Kwa Yan Teng and Sally Yong

Casuarina Primary School

Introduction

Casuarina Primary School identified e-pedagogy and Differentiated Instruction among the areas of teaching practice from SkillsFuture for Educators (SFEd) for teachers’ professional development in the next three years. Our critical inquiry project focuses on harnessing e-Pedagogy in our Korean music module. We hope that this will help our students to appreciate South Korea’s music and culture in a more effective and engaging way.

Research Question

Does the use of music technology increase students’ intrinsic motivation in music lessons?

Profile of Students

• Primary 4 students

• Students were briefly introduced to Song Maker, an experiment in Chrome Music Lab in Primary 3

• Students went through a sevenweek GarageBand programme in Term 2 this year

• Students were of mixed readiness levels

Methodology

1. O bservation

 Lessons were observed for eight weeks

2. Q uestionnaire Survey

 A questionnaire survey was given to assess the students’ intrinsic motivation level (self-efficacy and interest) after the project (Center For Self-Determination Theory, n.d.)

3. I nterviews and Teacher Observations

 One-to-one interviews with 10 randomly selected students

 Observations by teachers during the duration of the project

Lesson Module

Topic: Korean Music

Level: Primary 4

Tasks: Through this module, the students will complete the following tasks:

1. Learn about Korean history and music, and its relationship with Chinese and Japanese cultures, through Padlet [self-directed learning]

 An additional Padlet was given to test students’ understanding with some questions after they explored the previous Padlet

2. I nput the melody of Arirang, a Korean folk song, on Song Maker

3. Rearrange Arirang on GarageBand in pairs [experiential learning]

Fig 1: Learning about Korean history and music through Padlet Click here to view Padlet

Use of Song Maker – Task 2

For Task 2, the students referred to the Arirang score that they received (shown above) for their arranging project.

According to Fleming and Mills (as cited in Cremata & Powell, 2016), current music technologies have the power to engage students in multiple learning modalities including visual, auditory, reading and kinaesthetic.

Therefore, Song Maker makes music more visual, more engaging and less theoretical than the traditional music staff. The playback function also allows students who learn aurally to listen to their music.

Arranging on GarageBand – Task 3 Regelski (as cited in Cremata & Powell, 2016) explained that music education must remain relevant to students to increase student participation and encourage more authentic student learning. GarageBand makes music arranging more accessible for students, simulating a similar experience in the modern music industry.

Before arranging, the students deduced that Arirang is in binary form. Therefore, the students’ arrangements should feature a change in instrumentation between the two sections. Students had to use the following instruments:

• At least 1 percussion instrument

• At least 2 SMART instruments for chordal accompaniment

We also encouraged students to stick to a genre and to ensure that the instruments featured fit their chosen genre.

The students would also check in with their teachers at various checkpoints such as after creating one accompaniment part.

The following is an example of a student’s project.

Research Findings

Student Interviews

We randomly selected 10 students and conducted one-to-one interviews with them. The students shared their views on five questions and the findings were summarised here:

1. A ll respondents enjoyed music lessons and put in their best effort.

Reasons:

 Able to play with music instruments

 Believe that music skills are lifelong and can be useful in future

 Participate in collaborative work

2. A ll respondents like to use GarageBand and Song Maker, and they acknowledged that they were better at using them at the end of the term.

Reasons:

 Authentic experience of song arrangement

 Expand their knowledge of different instruments

 Being able to work collaboratively provided opportunities for exchange of musical ideas

3. S ome students were motivated when technology was used during music lessons.

Reasons:

 Technology facilitates the learning process

 Provides opportunity for student-student interaction

H owever, some students disagreed:

 Appreciates the opportunity to learn the subject, not dependent on the instrument/ learning device given

 Prefers learning through physical instruments

Fig 3: Arirang melody on Song Maker

Fig 4: Sample of student’s arrangement of Arirang on GarageBand

Fig 2: Arirang score given to students for their arranging project

Questionnaire Survey

The table below shows the results of a survey done by 135 students after the project ended.

I enjoy music lessons very much. 86.6% Music lessons are fun.

I put in effort during music lessons. 80.7%

I want to do well for music. 88.1%

I enjoy using technology during music lessons.

I am good at using music technology. 53.3%

I am confident of doing well in technologyrelated activities during music lessons.

• Students were more confident to share their ideas and works with each other, allowing their peers to listen to their works for peer feedback.

• [Teacher as a facilitator] Students were able to verbalise their ideas and ask for their teachers’ opinions during the project.

• The lessons catered to students of different readiness levels; all were able to arrange Arirang at different levels of complexity.

Discussion on Findings

At the start of the project, we were aware of students who were not doing well with technology, and worked on building their confidence using two areas of implementation for the whole level:

• Harnessed technology to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to be included in this meaningful learning experience

• Provided students with time to explore and experiment (i.e. Term 2 GarageBand training sessions)

Teachers’ Observations

• All students were fully engaged during the lesson:

 Students were enthusiastic at every stage of the project.

 Students had the autonomy to work on the project independently at their own pace.

 Learning was appropriately scaffolded (e.g. tasks were broken down into manageable parts – Padlet, Song Maker, GarageBand) which provided students with a sense of competency to complete them.

 Students were encouraged to arrange Arirang in another style after completing their initial project.

• The visual representations and comprehensible features of GarageBand enabled students with special educational needs to follow the project and create good compositions.

• Collaborative learning between students was observed as students who were better in using the software willingly assisted students who needed more guidance.

Conclusion

Students have expressed increased intrinsic motivation through this project. In addition, there were more opportunities for interactions between the teacher and students due to the appropriately paced tasks. Self-directed and independent learners were also observed. Moving forward, we will continue to tap on ICT tools to improve the motivation, confidence and engagement of students in music modules.

Based on survey results, student interviews and teacher observations, students were motivated and engaged in the lessons. Higher readiness students were seen to also display a high level of confidence as they felt more competent during the project. However, we also noticed that some students in the survey felt that they were confident of doing well in music technology even though they did not feel like they were good at it yet.

References

• Center For Self-Determination Theory. (n.d.). Aspirations Index (Original) Retrieved July 14, 2021, from https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/intrinsicmotivation-inventory

• Cremata, R., & Powell, B. (2016). Digitally mediated keyboard leaning: Speed of mastery, level of retention and student perspectives’, Journal of Music, Technology & Education, 9 (2), 145-159. https://doi.org/10.1386/jmte.9.2.145_1

SECTION 4

e-Pedagogy

–

Personalising Learning Through Technology

New Possibilities in Which Learning Can Be Personalised for Students with Technology

110

Lim Jia Jing discusses how she used BandLab and Penzu in facilitating students’ creative pop song remix.

122

Eileen Chia and Teo Xin Ning share their students’ musical creations demonstrating an understanding of musical forms through their blended learning module.

132 140

Vu Tien Dat explores the use of Digital Audio Workstation to encourage students’ interest in music.

Cindy Goh shares her journey in trying to engage students in music-making amid the challenges the COVID-19 restrictions presented, harnessing technological tools among other strategies.

Investigating How the Use of Technology Impacts Students’

Self-directed Learning and Enhances Creativity in a Pop Song Remix

Lim Jia Jing

Springfield Secondary School

Background

In 2021, students across Singapore were each given a personal learning device (PLD) of either a laptop or an iPad. In Springfield Secondary School, students are using a Google Chromebook I decided to leverage on this device for my music lessons.

I introduced BandLab, a web-based digital workstation, to my Secondary 2 students during music lessons. The reasons are:

• Convenience (web browser, no download)

• User-friendly (UI is simple)

• Can create classes

I also used Penzu for students’ journaling work (see Fig 1).

Research Question

How can I use technology to impact student’s self-directedness in learning and enhance their creativity through a pop song remix?

Methodology

Secondary 2 cohort – 30 Normal (Technical) students, 80 Normal (Academic) students and 77 Express students

Data collection

• Pre- and post-survey questions

Able to connect to web browser

Straightforward

Free version has the necessary ingredients of journaling

• Verbal Check (one-to-one consultations with students and noting any raised concerns)

• Journaling (Both myself and the students penned down our thoughts throughout this entire music-making experience)

Class as header for easier identification

Absentees for that day were also recorded for ease of tracking

Title of pop song cover was also noted down for ease of recall

Fig 1: Journaling with Penzu

Pre-Survey Results

Have you heard of any of these music technologies?

Curriculum Outline

• Planning (1-2 weeks)

• Arranging (11 weeks)

• Submission (2 weeks)

Pre-Survey

Teacher checks the text briefly to ensure students are on track

Pre-Survey Questions

Forced-choice questions Open-ended questions

Knowledge

• Have you heard of any of these music technologies?

Feelings

• Would you be excited if your next project is about pop song arrangement with technology?

• What do you wish to achieve in your own pop song creation?

Thoughts

• What are your thoughts when music-making is combined with technology?

Knowledge

• What do you think pop song arrangement means?

students were absent when the survey was conducted.

Fig 1: Journaling with Penzu

Fig

Would you be excited if your next project is about pop song arrangement with technology?

What are your thoughts when music-making is combined with technology?

Students generally described sounds, their feelings and their learning. For example:

Sounds Feelings Learning

• “Got to sound nice and amazing”

• “Improve good music”

• “Quite cool, unique and new”

• “Unsure as it is a new thing”

• “Unique like EDM”

• “Modern”

What do you wish to achieve in your own pop song creation?

• “Easier and more fun way to learn”

• “Easier to create music”

• “Make more beats”

Responses generally relate to their learning, their feelings and social media. For example:

Social Media Feelings Learning

• “Put on YouTube and get 1 million subs”

• “Make my music sound cool”

• “Something interesting that people will like and vibe to”

• “Good ratings from people”

• “Makes good music”

Post-Survey

Post-Survey Questions

Forced-choice questions Open-ended questions

Effort

• How much effort do you think you put in this project?

Interest

• Has your interest in BandLab increased after this project?

Achievement

• Have you achieved the things you want to do in this remix?

Post-Survey Results

Feel

• Is this project very tough or very easy for you? Elaborate on why you think that way.

• Do you feel creative while doing this project? Why?

• Have you tried to learn new things on your own while doing this project? If yes, what are the new things?

How much effort do you think you put in this project?

• “Can try new instruments”

• “Make a nice beat”

• “Putting own rap”

• “How to make a pop song”

• “Master the controls”

Fig

Has your interest in BandLab increased after this project?

Have you achieved the things you want to do in this remix?

. Is this project very tough or very easy for you? Elaborate on why you think that way.

Tough

• Very tough, not good at songs and technology

• Solo work is tough

• Difficult to do a remix

• No experience and not interested

• Finding the right beats/loops

Easy

• Fun

• Fairly easy, able to find instruments and sounds

• Instructions are simple to follow

• Time frame is reasonable and had enough time

• Challenging, hence rewarding

Do you feel creative while doing this project? Why?

• Losing interest due to the usage of PLD again Yes

• Able to change genre

• Adding different drums and beats

• Making a song of my own choice

• Have the freedom to make my own beats

• Exploring the various loops

• Trying things that I don’t usually do

• Nothing to improve on, original is good enough

• Cannot find beats that are better than the original

• Limitation of the musical instruments

• Find beats randomly

Have you tried to learn new things on your own while doing this project? If yes, what are the new things?

• Learning effects on the instruments

• Mix the sound of piano and guitar

• Different categories of sounds such as Lo-fi and EDM

• Different functions of BandLab

• Changing drum kits

• Recording with own piano keys

• Busy editing the song

• Find beats randomly

• Did this before

Students generally described effects, sounds, rhythm, and learning elsewhere. For example:

Effects Sounds Rhythm Outside

• Learning effects on the instruments

• Tried different sound effects and chose the ones which sounded nice

• Mix piano and guitar

• Different categories such as Lo-fi and EDM

• Additional music sounds such as bass

• Add original voice in my project

• Making my own beat

• Different rhythm of guitar

• Changing the drum kits

• Searched on YouTube on how to change the tempo

• Search the chords to use in our Chromebook’s keyboard to play it

Issues During Online Submissions

1. Lag

The recorded screen is laggy and is not in sync with the music

2. Password

Students forget password

Students’ Works Example 1 Maroon 5 – This Love

Observations

Issues During Lessons

1. MIDI

Different songs have different track timing

Solution:

Ignore the discrepancy of the timings and have the students work on their remix as per normal

2. BandLab

Missing files/locked websites

Solution:

Get the IT department to help me to unlock and allow access

3. Forgetfulness

Forgetting to bring laptop or the laptop is not charged

Solution:

Use phone, download app

*BandLab’s app version on phone is different from the desktop’s. However, saved work can still be continued on either device

2 C418’s

Fig 8: Platform where students submit screen recordings of their work

Fig 9: Example of students’ journal entries

Fig 9: Example of students’ journal entries

Reflections

• Students are visual learners. If they see something that is simple or colourful, for example BandLab, they would naturally be drawn to it.

• Express and Normal (Academic) students put in quite a fair bit of effort and some of their works reflected that. However, some of them indicated that they did not see the point of using technology in their music and would rather learn and play a music instrument physically.

• Normal (Technical) students responded differently. They liked the concept initially but when they found out that there was a lot of back-end practice and figuring things out, a lot of them stopped putting in extra effort.

Refining for the Future Impact

Giving more demonstrations

When students know about their teacher’s own struggles in creating this project, they will understand that even though it can be scary, it is still doable.

Real-life scenarios

Adding real-life scenarios, other than just “dumping” the project onto the students.

For example, imagining oneself as a DJ, YouTuber, or someone employed by a recording studio.

Creativity

• A lot of my students were glad to be able to choose their own pop songs even though there were restrictions (no foul language/explicit content).

• Express and Normal (Academic) students were willing to go the extra mile to search for ways to improve. However, there were tracks that were not coherent as students had decided to bombard their chosen pop song with various tracks that did not blend well with the song.

• Normal (Technical) students’ works were less meticulous and some had submitted empty projects as they felt that the work was too tough and did not have any musical impact nor relevance to their everyday lives.

Fool-proof plans

When students decide to be cheeky and not bring their laptop or if their laptops were not charged, be prepared with another laptop in place. Phones can also be substitutes.

Group work

A lot of students gave feedback that doing this project solo is too stressful and they would have loved to work with another person.

Students’ Musical Response to Blended Learning

Eileen Chia

Teo Xin Ning Xinghua Primary School

Punggol View Primary School

Background

During the Circuit Breaker in 2020, we observed that students were not independent enough to complete the performance tasks assigned during Home-Based Learning. The common issues from the students’ work include:

• Incomplete work

• Sloppiness

• Lack of connection with school’s music curriculum

Therefore, we hope to explore ways in which the online learning component can increase student engagement and selfdirectedness in the learning of the subject.

Blended Learning Module

How did we carry out the blended learning module?

• Students were assigned the Student Learning Space (SLS) lesson packages on the musical concepts – Rounded Binary, Theme and Variation, and Canon a week before the face-to-face (f2f) sessions.

• During the face-to-face lessons, the teacher briefly revised the concepts students learnt online.

Methodology

Qualitative methods:

1. Teacher’s journal – observation of the students during the face-to-face lessons focusing on:

• How are students responding musically to the blended learning model?

• How are they seeking help from each other?

• How are we helping them be more self-directed?

• Do they take more ownership of their compositions?

2. Students’ final product in their group work or individual work

3. Students’ reflections from a poll

Research Question

How do students respond musically in their instrumental performance after going through the blended learning module?

• Students were given an opportunity to try composing using the various musical concepts learnt in class.

• Students were then asked to choose one concept they want to present to the class and work on it.

• In the final week, students presented their compositions by performing for the class.

Here is an example of our SLS lesson package. Click here to view package

Findings

We categorised our findings into three categories, mainly:

1. Ownership of learning

• Understanding learning goals

• Identifying learning tasks to achieve goals

2. Management/Monitoring of own learning

• Gather feedback on learning

3. Extension of own learning (Observation)

• Apply learning to a new context

Ownership of Learning

This is an example of “understanding learning goals” through the students’ completion of their SLS assignment. In the example shown (Fig 1), students were asked to learn the

concept of rounded binary from the lesson package and apply their understanding by identifying the three different sections of Ode to Joy

This is another example of students demonstrating an understanding of the theme and variation concept by explaining it in their own words (Fig 2).

Here are some responses from students when asked to explain canon in their own words (Fig 3).

Fig 2: Examples of student responses in explaining theme and variation

Fig 3: Examples of student responses in explaining canon

This is a showcase of students performing their original rounded binary composition (Fig 4).

Students from the higher-ability group managed to compose and play a more elaborate version of their rounded binary composition (Fig 5).

Click here to view media

Fig 4: Example of students’ composition in rounded binary

Click here to view media

Fig 5: Example of a more elaborate rounded binary composition

Here are examples of students’ work in theme and variation (Fig 6a and 6b).

Click here to view media

Fig 6a: Example of a student’s composition in theme and variation

. Fig 6b: Another example of a student’s composition in theme and variation

This is a showcase of canon (Fig 7).

Fig 7: Example of a student’s composition in canon

Click here to view media

Monitoring of Learning

We observed that students managed to work on feedback for their learning. From the videos, we can see how a student improved before and after she received feedback on the rhythm of what she played. In the previous video, she played the semiquavers as quavers. After the teacher’s demonstration, she proceeded to correct it and played it correctly in the after-video.

Extension of Learning

We were very heartened to see students extending their learning by attempting to play a jingle from advertisements in the rounded binary form.

During the lesson on rounded binary, after students were done composing and trying out their compositions on the resonator bells, a few of them shared their compositions with their friends and tried out each other’s compositions.

Students were able to interpret the concept by thinking of alternatives. Watch the following video of how these two girls presented Row, Row, Row Your Boat in canon form using rhythm instead of melody.

Some students even combined two different musical forms in their performance.

Students’ Reflections

After we completed the SLS lesson packages and the showcase of students’ performances, we conducted a poll based on the ownership of learning, monitoring of their learning and extension of their learning.

Did the SLS lesson packages help students in the learning of musical forms?

the learning of concepts online help students in the

Students’ Reflections

Did learning the concepts at home give them more time for performance practice in class? Did students find themselves learning more independently through the blended learning module?

Even though many students answered maybe, we felt that it was a good start to having them learn more independently.

Discussion

Ownership of learning (Students’ reflections):

• Based on the students’ responses, we found that most students understood their learning goals and they identified the learning task to achieve the goals through the online learning packages.

• Those who did not reflected that they could not understand the online lesson assigned and felt that they learnt more from friends and teachers.

• Recap and reinforcement of concepts during the lesson helped students to understand the learning goals better.

Monitoring of learning

• From teachers’ observations, students were very enthusiastic about asking their peers to listen to their compositions for feedback.

• Students were on task by asking the teacher to correct their written compositions.

• Feedback given by teachers during the feedback session gave them direction on what to improve on for their final performance.

• Students were interested to see their teachers playing their work.

Extension of learning

• Not all students were able to extend their learning of the concepts. However, some were able to apply what they have learnt to jingles they hear in advertisements.

• Some students extended their learning by trying out their friend’s composition.

• Students also tried to apply the musical concepts using different elements i.e. melodic to rhythmic.

• Students tapped on prior knowledge i.e. adding dynamics to their performance.

Conclusion

To succeed in this approach, we have to pitch the lesson content to the ability of the students. Some classes may need more scaffolding than others. For example, teachers could print templates for students as a guide while the higher-ability students could compose with less guidance.

• Many were able to notate a composition based on the musical concept. However, not all were able to play what they composed accurately and required the teacher’s guidance.

• The theory aspect for this blended learning study was well covered because students had ample time to complete the learning on their own. However, we need to look into how we can enrich their practical sessions in class. For example, the higher-ability students mastered the playing faster than the others. They were left waiting for those who needed more time. Therefore, in future, we can consider challenging them further i.e. asking them to digitise their compositions on platforms like Song Maker, an experiment in Chrome Music Lab.

Fig 8: Example of template

How to Use ICT Tools in Music

Lessons to Engage and Encourage Students’ Interest in Music?

Vu Tien Dat

Dunearn

Secondary School

Purpose of Research

Through this project, I seek to explore ways to encourage students to listen and create music beyond the classroom setting. This includes:

• Teaching students how to arrange music using ICT tools

• Engaging students beyond the classroom

• Motivating students to make music individually as well as collaboratively

Research Question

How to use ICT tools in music lessons to engage and encourage students’ interest in music?

Target Audience

• Secondary 1 students from Express and Normal (Academic)

• Varied music background – some students are from Performing Arts CoCurricular Activities (CCAs) and some students take private music lessons

• 71.6% of participants have experience using Digital Audio Workstations (DAW), such as GarageBand in primary school

Curriculum and Action Plan

Our music curriculum is focused on providing students with opportunities to learn music through digital music lessons.

• Weekly 1-hour lesson for two terms, in both Home-Based Learning and face-to-face modes

• Devices used: iPads, handphones and laptops

• DAW used: BandLab and GarageBand (Reasons: not enough iPads for GarageBand due to no sharing of equipment in COVID-19 situation, availability on multiple phones and devices, Singapore-based company)

Methodology

Data collection

• Observations based on:

 Students’ attentiveness and participation during lessons

 Students’ interest

 Students’ ability to troubleshoot the technical issues

 Students’ engagement level

• Use of relevant questionnaire:

 What was the learning music experience like?

 How much do you know about the DAW?

 Have ICT tools motivated you to learn more about music?

 If given a chance to influence others to learn music, what would you suggest to them?

Students were introduced to three main functions of BandLab:

 MIDI instruments

 Voice recorder

 Loopers

The lesson package focused on teaching students to create their own digital Pop Song cover. (No group work activity or live performances due to COVID-19).

• Create an arrangement inclusive of rhythm, harmony, a drum beat and a bass line. Melody is provided by the teachers

• Songs to work on: Someone You Loved, Dance Monkey, The Road Ahead (NDP 2021 Theme Song)

• Optional: Students may also include other sound effects, as well as singing

Pedagogy

• Blended Learning

Students get to learn both in class and at home:

 In class, we focus on sharing, feedback and handson activities

 At home, students do their own reading and practice

• Gradual Release of Responsibility (Douglas Fisher, 2013)

 When applying the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, teachers are able to observe the understanding of students and provide timely feedback and help

• Informal Learning (Lucy Green, 2008)

Lesson Resources

• DAWs used: BandLab and GarageBand

• Teachers created score and MIDI files on Finale for the students

• The Student Learning Space (SLS) lessons

Findings (Comparison of Pre- and Post-Survey Results)

At the end of the two terms, most students were still excited to learn music, even though they had to practise and troubleshoot some of the problems on their own, as well as submit assignments.

It’s great! It has many functions which help me learn and understand a lot about music. I am so motivated to learn and play more music now!

It’s cool. I use it just because my teacher asks me to do it. It doesn’t motivate me to play music more than normal instruments.

Fig 4: Students’ pre- and post-responses to what their thoughts are after using ICT tools to learn music

It’s good! It helps make practising and playing music not so daunting and still can create a decent soundtrack. I can share it with my teacher and friends, too.

It’s bad! I don’t like the idea of playing music from a screen. I just want to play and practise with real instruments.

Fig 2: Music input on BandLab

Fig 3: Finale scores for the students

65.8% of them would encourage others to use ICT tools to learn more about music, over suggesting a real instrument.

Show them one of the music apps you know (GarageBand, BandLab…) and tell them to check it out.

Tell them that you know how to play drum/ keyboard (or any instrument you know), and they should try to learn that instrument too.

Specific student responses in indicating preference for ICT tools vis-à-vis acoustic instruments

• ICT tools: Some students say it is fun; less hassle in terms of moving acoustic instruments; cheaper and/or free app download; easier to show others their work

But 69.9% of students said that they would like a chance to learn an acoustic instrument next year, showcasing that the experience of using a physical instrument is still very important to our students.

Prior knowledge

• “I cannot play on physical instrument”

Interest/Motivation

• “It's fun and useful”

• “Easier”

• “More convenient”

• “Lazy to hit the drums and many stuff, very tiring”

• “More comfortable”

Others

• “Cheaper”

• “Easier to teach someone else”

tool

instruments

Prior knowledge

• “I play in band”

• “Can’t do ICT”

• “I play the piano and I like piano”

Fig 6: Students’ responses to whether they would prefer to continue with the ICT tools or change to learn an acoustic instrument

• Acoustic instruments: Some students have prior knowledge of playing real instruments and therefore find it easier; others would like to feel the real instrument and find it more authentic and more “cool”

Fig 8: Students’ responses in preferring physical instruments

Interest/Motivation

• “Can feel the instrument’s texture, the ‘feel’ of holding an instrument”

• “More engaging, easier”

• “Don’t like ICT”

• “Simpler”

• “More authentic”

• “More fun”

• “Prefer hands-on learning exp”

• “Much ‘cooler’”

Others

• “Submitting things online is troublesome”

Fig 5: Students’ responses to how they would advise others to learn music

Fig 7: Students’ responses in preferring ICT tools

Findings (Student interest)

• The use of ICT tools in music lessons has proven to be able to increase students’ interest in doing music. Students were not only interested in creating music using ICT tools but were also interested in listening to music, discussing music as well as sharing their musical ideas with others.

• During lessons, the task was to search for the right soundtracks to be included in the projects. Students also had regular sharing sessions where everyone would listen to their classmates’ works to give feedback for improvement. As a result, students naturally listened to music more frequently and listened to a wider range of music.

• Students were observed to be enjoying exploring the app and actively making attempts to create their own music.

• At the beginning of the module, students faced many technical challenges from installing the app, creating an account and a password, and joining in the BandLab Education, to operating the app and navigating different functions. Slowly but surely, towards the end of the module, almost all students were able to troubleshoot all technical issues, and started to submit the assigned tasks. It takes a great amount of interest and engagement to overcome the challenges and be efficient with a DAW app within a short period of time.

Conclusions

The CI NLC is a great opportunity for all music teachers to share, grow and hone our teaching skills. I am glad to have a chance to learn from all participants in the NLC. To conclude this research project, there are three points I would like to highlight:

First of all, through this project, I have learnt that students’ interest and motivation are key to a successful learning process. There are obstacles and challenges along the way but if students are eager to learn and the lessons are able to stir their interest, learning would be enjoyable and meaningful. ICT tools play an important role in boosting learning and engagement of students.

Secondly, in order to engage students, teachers must be sensitive to students’ ways of thinking, their likes and dislikes, and the changing music scene around us.

As teachers, we ought to lay down the fundamental knowledge, but for students to be interested in learning, their voices must be heard and embraced. For instance, in my questionnaire, I have included questions to find out what songs they listen to and what they would like to learn next.

Lastly, I find the Informal Learning pedagogy by Lucy Green and the Gradual Release of Responsibility model to be very useful in music teaching and learning. Both approaches give ownership to students in their learning and encourage teachers to take the role of facilitators, to observe and witness students’ learning and to provide timely feedback and guidance.

References

• Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2013). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility ASCD

• Green, L. (2008). Music, informal learning and the school: A new classroom pedagogy. Ashgate.

Fig 9: Student’s WhatsApp message to teacher indicating self-directedness and motivation in doing music

Fig 10: Students’ responses on interest in doing music

From the post-survey, 68.3% of students either strongly agreed or agreed that the use of DAW created greater interest in doing music.

Increasing Students’ Engagement in the Music-making Process

Cindy Goh Dunearn Secondary School

Sing to the tune of Do You Want to Build a Snowman:

Do you want to know my story

Come on and listen yo I am Cindy from Dunearn Sec I love to sing

Hope you’ll like my sharing

We used to meet face to face

And now on Zoom

I’m glad I can pre-record

Do you want to know my story

Just sharing some moments

Okay I’ll start

I will attempt to share the moments I had in my music teaching in trying to engage students in my music lessons. Some were “successes” while others were “failures”. Since this is a reflection, I shall not shy away from my “challenges” as these are my learning points and areas for improvement.

Setting the Stage

Since the start of COVID-19, singing – my favourite activity for music lessons – has been prohibited.

I can’t break into a song spontaneously like before. I had to pre-plan my “singing” as I searched for suitable YouTube videos to play along. This forced planning has been helpful for two reasons: First, I was able to preserve my voice box because I used to get a sore throat very often from all the singing I did in classes. And second, I discovered that there are actually many websites that have scores in addition to the lyrics, which made jam-along sessions much easier for some kids to follow.

I managed to overcome my own fear of using technology in music lessons (which has been limited to PowerPoint and YouTube) as I always declared upfront that I am an “ICT idiot”. I also managed to record my own singing and shared my own “covers” of songs with my students with the use of BandLab.

In this narrative, I share some moments in my music lessons, and my reflections on why I am teaching what I am teaching. I also discuss how I moderated my expectations, my content and focus in music lessons so that both my students and I could be more engaged in music lessons and grow in our own ways.

Let the Show Begin

Term 1 started with me trying to get students to write their own songs, which was a daunting task, as many of them were clueless as to how to start. I was also doing it unusually early as songwriting was typically done at the start of Semester 2 after students learnt how to play certain instruments like guitar or keyboards formally. I decided to push ahead to see if it made any difference if students were not taught how to play instruments first before creating their own songs.

I was harbouring this “possibility”. With the experience of using Google Classroom last year, I decided to upload all the resources in a “songwriting” folder, thinking that it could serve as a repository for students to follow the steps at their own pace with the autonomy and liberty to vary their songwriting approach.

During lesson time, I tried to provide the “scaffold” to help students with the various segments of songwriting like lyric writing, melody writing and chord progression. The students were allowed to form their own groups, pick their own themes and come up with their own lyrics and melody.

For lyric writing, I gave students some themes, ranging from personal story, friends, food, life, subject-related themes, worked through the themes with the students as a class, brainstormed for keywords, put them into phrases and made puns out of them. I also shared my own lyrics with them – modified from You Are the Reason

The lyric writing segment allowed me to get to know the students better as many

students were genuine and generous in sharing their own life stories through their lyrics. Some of the lyrics were soulsearching and expressive and there were others which were good for memory recall (e.g. a volcano story on Mount Pompeii). I felt that having students pen lyrics was a great way for teachers to get to know students better as they were open to share their thoughts and feelings with minimal judgement.

There were many students who found that life was stressful as they spent their whole time studying. There were a few who seemed depressed after being “ditched” by their loved ones, there were some students who used vulgarities even though it was explicitly prohibited in my “instructions or recommendations”, but they justified that

their songs and words were a means for them to express their emotions and feelings.

There are many songs with vulgarities that students are exposed to. Yes, they do sound rude, offensive and disrespectful. But why am I judging these songwriters for their choice of words? A few students seemed to like expressing themselves that way as well, so I tried to advise them. After all, there are teachable moments from these. But I guess I need better strategies to convince and help students to express themselves better.

For the melody creation and chord progression segment, I tried to suggest some chord progressions (e.g. I VI IV V). They were also played for the students on the piano and guitar, and I used resources such as BandLab, Solfeg.io and Hookpad. I then demonstrated how I could “randomly” hum a melody that went along with the loops of chord progressions used, but many students remained stuck at this stage. Maybe I didn’t give the students enough time to explore all the various ICT tools

available during lesson time. I was too “positive”, thinking that the students would be motivated on their own to explore the various tools for their melody creation since everything was posted online? Maybe I needed some more structure here?

I felt that the melody creation segment was a little disappointing as most kids chose to use the more user-friendly ICT tools like Song Maker, an experiment in Chrome Music Lab, to create “fun” visuals rather than nice tunes. It was a learning experience as there were a couple of students who attempted to record the melody of familiar tunes like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Mary Had a Little Lamb by ear on the Chrome Music Lab which was also good for their aural training.

With hindsight, perhaps I could have focused more on a specific task, like lyric writing, for the majority of the students. For more advanced students, they could move on to create a melody based on a recommended chord progression. After which, I could have students listen and notate simple melodies by ear on Song Maker, or I could show students and challenge them to consider how they could make their “fun visuals", or text they created visually, sound pretty decent by experimenting with the intervals in the visuals.

Then, both my students and I would feel more accomplished, I believe.

The setting up of BandLab also took a lot of time and effort. Although I had added the instructions on the Student Learning Space (SLS) and Google Classroom, there were still a handful of students who could not get into the website (edu.bandlab.com).

They WhatsApped me after school so that I could guide them step by step. It was rather time-consuming. My learning point is that I would do it with the students in a computer lab the next time, instead of asking them to use their own handphones to do it.

Discovering More About My Students

This is my 13th year in teaching. Up until now, although I have the habit of revising my lesson as there were always different approaches and strategies that I wanted to try with different classes with different class culture and vibes, I was not totally conscious of why I did certain activities. Through this project, I am “forced” to sit down and examine why I am doing what I am doing.

While I am aware of using the ExperienceConcept-Application (ECA) approach to music learning, I am always guilty of focusing mainly on the experience part, with little design to actualise the application due to lack of time, and lack of a deliberate focus.

For example, in my guitar teaching module, I tend to start with a little theory on the six open strings, using the phrase “Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie” to help students remember the tuning of the strings. I then move on pretty quickly to strumming the basic four chord patterns, C, G, Am and F, thinking that being able to play their favourite pop songs immediately would be a great motivator for the students. After a few weeks of guitar strumming, while some students were able to play along with the videos, there were many who were not able to follow. The

complaints from many of the students were similar – it is difficult to change the chords in time, their fingers hurt from pressing the guitar tabs or, they cannot memorise the chord tab or chord progression.

One day, I decided to recycle one of the very first songs I used in my early years of teaching guitar – My Heart Will Go On. This time, however, I got them to play the melody using only one string.

To my surprise, almost the whole class was able to play the entire song while singing to the number chant. Even the most mischievous and typically unmotivated boys were interested and able to play it.

As I reflected on this, it dawned upon me that this task was actually simple and yet challenging. Students were able to apply the concept of the chords through a simple

yet challenging task, that is why the kids were engaged. Just like in the jamming sessions of some of my lessons, when only a few notes were used, the students actually felt “success” when they could play something musical.

With the use of technology, I discovered that I can show my students how to create music using different tools like BandLab and through different approaches.

There were short advertisement jingles that I got the students to create based on loops from BandLab so they were able to make their own jingles within a pretty short time frame. This is another form of application to draw from the musical experiences they have had.

I also discovered talents among my students when some students submitted their recordings of their songs online. Oh my… if I hadn’t tried teaching with technology, I probably would have missed out on what my students could do!

The Show Must Go On But with Different Approaches

With the use of ICT tools, I realised that I became more “ambitious”. I parked a lot of resources and assessment rubrics online as I believe that this could support students’ self-directed work, and thought that, “Wow! There is now a platform for me to ‘chase’ students for homework as there is no excuse for them not to know anything because everything is shared with them!”

I had two conflicting thoughts: One was, “Yeah, there is more opportunity for the students to share and showcase their talent and pursue their interests as there are more platforms to deposit their progress.”

The other was, “Oh no, why am I giving myself more work to chase the kids to do what they were tasked to do? Some of them do not even hand in their Maths or English homework, would they even bother to hand in music homework?”

Initially, I wanted to have multiple assessments to make up the final music grade for the students such as the songwriting, guitar playing, National Day and community song singing, graphical scores, and music cover. But in the end, I decided that I would give the class an opportunity to decide how they wanted to be assessed and graded according to the learning outcomes of the syllabus. So, the assessment would be different for different classes and different students.

I am, as usual, experimental and a free spirit when it comes to my music classes. Different classes had different student profiles, interests and characteristics so although my lessons were similar, they were also different as I strived to work on students’ strengths and make connections with them, tweaking my lessons. So, the assessment was differentiated as well.

DC Coda

As we come to the end of my story, we must always go back to the beginning as well, to ask ourselves why we teach what we teach and how we teach… Maybe for me, as I asked myself these questions, I realised that I needed to learn how music could allow people to express themselves and why the focus of my lessons has been shifting.

Is the ability to sing and play an instrument important? Yes, so that one can derive enjoyment and satisfaction from it.

What about performing, is it essential that they can perform “live”? Again, when one can be happy performing, many might be shy. So, the recording of their singing and performance at home helps to mitigate this issue.

What about assessment for learning?

Documenting requires time and effort, so with the use of technological tools such as Google Classroom, work could be done from home, students get to pursue their interests and continue at their own pace at home. Students who are inherently more interested in music spend more time on

their own outside of lesson time to explore, discover and understand more about music and its elements through the different ICT tools like BandLab and Chrome Music Lab.

With this reflective experience this year, I will probably change my music lesson approach and my assessment mode and start catering to my students’ interests right at the beginning for my future batch of students. To find out what they are keen to achieve for themselves, let them set their own goals, document their own progress and reflections more systematically, then have different assessment goals for different students.

After all, we are all trying to develop our kids and ourselves in our own ways through music. It is important that we give time and attention to the process of learning itself.

to the tune of My Way :

And now the end is near

This sharing’s done I hope you like it

My friend I will say it clear

I will state my case of which I am certain

I’ve tried different methods

Some worked well some didn’t It’s okay I try again I’ll make it better

Sing

Assessment for Learning

New Possibilities to Empower and Involve the Learner in Assessment

148

Jane Chua focuses on developing clarity in learning through using various technological tools and strategies to help students to be more effective learners.

162

Grace Wong discusses the effectiveness of peer teaching and use of ICT tools such as YouTube tutorial videos in keyboard learning.

168

Asaph Lee and Ang Xin Wei share how they facilitate reflection through video recordings.

How Clarity in Learning Impacts Students’ Learning and Decision-making

Jane Chua

Chua Chu

Kang Primary School

Research Questions

Primary Research Question:

• How does clarity in learning impact students’ learning and decision-making?

Secondary Research Questions:

• How can we frame the way students are learning?

 How are students learning new content? How does our teaching pedagogy impact their learning and understanding?

 Do students know What they are learning?

 Do they know Why they are learning or doing a certain activity? How do they link it to the learning objectives?

• How can I create opportunities or design experiences that are authentic and relevant to the learners to make their thinking and learning visible?

• How do we help our students to be more proactive in making their own decisions?

Background

Study group:

Semester task: Students are to create a simple arrangement (introduction, verse and chorus) that includes harmony, rhythm and bass on the song Faded

Prerequisite:

• Term 1: Students learnt about the “music burger”: the different music elements that create a pop song (melody, harmony, rhythm, bass), and the types of instruments that can play these parts. They also learnt about what accompaniment is and its function and were introduced to the term “texture”.

• Term 2: Keyboard lessons where they learnt about chords and how to play the accompaniment using chords. They learnt to keep the pulse while playing the accompaniment together with the backing track

Resource used:

Chromebook (All Primary 4 students have their own Chromebook devices in 2021)

Past Lessons

How were GarageBand lessons conducted in the past?

• Teacher would teach students how to navigate GarageBand by getting them to follow a step-by-step guide to creating a demo song.

• Students would follow the steps instructed by the teacher. They would wait for instructions to know which icon to click next.

• Many students were able to follow the step-by-step guide and complete their demo song before creating their music arrangements.

Therefore, we would have assumed that students have learnt how to navigate GarageBand since they were able to follow and complete the demo song.

However, in terms of observed outcomes:

• Students were unable to retain the knowledge that was taught. Many were still not familiar with some concepts, hence when they were stuck (e.g. they forgot how to add a new instrument/ track), many waited for the teacher to assist them before they could continue with their work. This led to many of them being unable to complete their final task.

• Students were unable to apply the knowledge in their music arrangement. Feedback received from their final work showed that many were still unfamiliar with the skills taught during the teacher-led demonstration, although they could follow the lessons well. For example, they did not know if they were recording correctly and in time. Some got the number of bars in a section wrong.

• Students did not have the confidence to explore and make mistakes. Many were unable to resolve simple problems that they faced such as accidentally clicking the “?” icon and not knowing how to move on. Hence, many could not complete their work as they waited for the teacher to help resolve the problem for them.

• Students could not make musical choices. Many of their arrangements were similar to the song demo, in terms of instrument choice and rhythmic accompaniment.

• Time constraints, in terms of logistics and also to provide consultation for every student in each lesson to help address their problems.

Fig 1: The “music burger”

Profile of Students

Melody

Bass Harmon y Rhyth m

Defining the Issue

Therefore, we identified two major problems:

1. Knowledge Retention

2. Knowledge Application

Problem 1 –Knowledge Retention

• Not all students were able to recall and be familiar with what was taught in the previous lesson (e.g. How many bars was the Introduction/ Verse? What was the harmony/chord progression?). We saw students only once a week, and it took time for them to be familiar with new content and to recall new information.

• During revision time, usually, students who are more vocal would be answering the questions. Evidence of their understanding was gathered only when a problem arose during their individual work.

• Some students took a while to settle into the classroom routine and the confusion disrupted their learning time.

Problem 2 –Knowledge Application

• Students were unable to apply the knowledge from the teacher-led demonstrations in their music arrangement. Some might have forgotten or are not familiar with the steps (e.g. they may have forgotten how to add new instruments, record, change bars or when to start recording).

• Students did not have the confidence to explore and make mistakes.

• Due to time constraints, the teacher was unable to provide consultation for every student in each lesson and to help address the problems they have or to help them improve their work weekly.

• Main feedback (Summative) was in their final work (Coursework) where the final grade would be given. At this point, it was also too late for the students to improve.

Literature Review

According to Hattie (2009): “...clarity as communicating the learning intentions and success criteria for the learning intentions so that students can identify where they are going in their learning, how they are progressing, and where they will go next, thus providing students enough clarity to own their own learning.” (p. 4-5)

He also describes:

“Learning is most successful when teachers see learning through the eyes of their students and students see themselves as their own teachers: This is Visible Learning.”

(Hattie, 2009, 2012)

Why is clarity from both the teacher’s perspective and the learner’s perspective important? Hattie states: “When teachers are clear on what students are learning, they can better select learning experiences that

specifically target what they are learning. They can better design learning experiences that are authentic and relevant to learners. Finally, when teachers know what success looks like, they can show learners what success looks like, design opportunities for students to make their own thinking and learning visible, give and receive feedback, and gather evidence about where to go next in the teaching and learning. All this, because of teacher clarity.” (Hattie, 2009)

Based on the learnings from the literature review, we developed these three guiding questions to help us with our lesson planning, to develop learning clarity for students and see how they respond to the following questions:

1. What am I learning?

2. Why am I learning?

3. How will I know I have learnt it?

So, we asked ourselves: What do we envision our students to be?

• To be thinkers, have the confidence to explore, and learn to find solutions to problems.

• To be able to apply what they have learnt in their music arrangement.

• To know how they can achieve success in the task that is given to them.

• To be able to self-assess to see where they are at and where they should be going.

In this research, we examine how clarity in students’ learning could be achieved to help address these problems and create more independent learners.

Pedagogical Approaches for Clarity

Using Sadler’s 3 conditions for learning (Sadler, 2007), Students must be able to demonstrate learning:

1. On Demand: students “…must be able to do, on demand, something they could not do before”

2. Independently with gradual removal of scaffold: students must be able to do it independently of particular others

3. Good enough: students “must be able to do it well” where they would be able to apply “...routinised knowledge,... with a modicum of tentative or experimental knowledge, so as to ‘do’ previously unseen tasks”

Kahoot! Premium+

1. To help students recall and retain what they learnt, we started the lesson with a game of Kahoot!, revisiting what was taught in the previous lessons. This helped students trigger their memory and to recall information and demonstrate learning in a fun environment.

2. Students only had 20 seconds to recall and react, training them to be able to answer these questions on demand

3. Students answered the questions independently rather than getting a chorus response. As stamps were awarded for the top three winners, they were also highly motivated to learn and remember the information that they would later apply in their individual assignment.

4. Kahoot! Premium+ generates the individual and class data, showing the percentage of students who answered accurately after every question. We used this data to:

 Identify individual students who were unable to follow the lesson or have any other misconceptions

 Allow us to track their progress over time

 Identify the concepts that they have difficulty understanding

 Modify the lessons to cater to the learning needs of each class

Mentimeter

• Using Mentimeter (see Fig 3) as a tool for Formative Assessment (FA) to check for understanding of each student (e.g. getting them to recall the steps to the routine). This helped them to be clear about the routine or task, and know exactly what they needed to do when they received their iPad and go straight

to it. This was also applied to other new content that we were teaching where students can type out and respond individually instead of a chorus response.

• As students were able to see each other’s answers, misconceptions could be addressed immediately, before they picked up their iPad.

Fig 2: Sample Kahoot! Premium+ data for individuals and for the class

Fig 3: Sample of Mentimeter in setting clear routines for using iPads

Reduce to bite-sized tasks (making it more manageable for them)

For example:

PAST

Task:

Record the Drum & Harmony for section A (2-3 lessons)

• Teacher demonstrates and goes through the task to tell students what they need to do.

• Problem arises due to confusion and misconceptions

PRESENT

In creating more bite-sized tasks, we scaffold each task and were also very explicit about what students needed to achieve at each stage. This helped them to be clear about what their learning goals were.

Task:

1. Explore the different types of “smart drums”

 Classic Studio Kit

 Hip Hop Drum Machine

2. Create and record 12-bar drum track using “smart drums”

3. Understand the different functions of the icons on the interface

4. Complete learning survey on the Student Learning Space (SLS) to rate their learning for the day

Based on this formative feedback cycle, we were still facing the following problems:

• How do we assess if the students understood the standards required from the beginning?

• How do we assess if they knew how to self-assess their work?

• How do we give them the confidence to make mistakes and think of a solution?

Modified Formative Feedback Cycle

Let

1. Teacher explains and clarifies standards

2. Collaborative learning: student-led demonstration to see how they can achieve the goals and assess the task together as a class

3. Teacher provides feedback through Formative Assessment and clarifies the standards by using success criteria from the live demonstration

4. Students applies the feedback and starts their individual work

Therefore, we adopted a modified feedback cycle. The important steps added to the cycle are Steps 2 and 3 (see Fig 5).

5. Student does their self-assessment based on the success criteria on the SLS/WILF checklist (see next page)

6. Teacher provides feedback

7. Student improves

Fig 5: Modified formative feedback cycle

For the collaborative learning step, the class came together to complete the given task on the teacher’s iPad. They work together to teach the “student” (acted by the teacher) on which steps to take.

In this step, the teacher also acted as a facilitator asking them probing questions (e.g. How do you think we can…?/What do you think we can do here?/How would you rate this?/What can we do to improve?). This helped them to think and make changes on the spot and learn to solve problems together

in a safe environment. If they were unable to do so, the teacher could step in to equip them with the skills that they could later apply in their individual work (Step 3). This is an important aspect as we observe the way students make sense of and use feedback. We also observe how the students learn and perceive different concepts and how they respond to them.

Students can also take this opportunity to clarify the standards or misconceptions before starting their work.

I am in pulse with the metronome

❍ Yes, I am

❍ Mostly are in pulse

❍ I am not in pulse and I need to re-record it

Poll

How would you rate your learning today?

1 lowest – 3 highest

1 I am mostly lost. I need help.

Self-Assessment

Using What Are we Learning Today (WALT) and What I am Looking For (WILF)

The next two self-assessment tools helped students know better if they completed their tasks well.

A. SLS – Learning Poll

• After every lesson, students used their Chromebook to complete their learning poll (see Fig 6) based on today’s success criteria (how well they did on each task, and rating their learning for the day).

• The data gave the teacher feedback on how manageable the task was and if any modification was needed in the following lesson.

• The teacher was also able to focus on students who were struggling in the next lesson.

• Challenge:

 Not all students were able to complete this poll at home if they are unable to complete it during a lesson. Our solution was to move to a physical checklist where students were able to check it off as they do their work.

B. Physical Checklist – What I am Looking For (WILF) Poll

• To complete their task – What Are we Learning Today (WALT) – for the lesson, they would need to accomplish these success criteria.

• WILF checklist (see Fig 7) was very scaffolded and helped students to identify where they were at independently, and learn to manage their time properly.

• Teacher used this as feedback to see how much was accomplished and to help students manage their work pace.

• Challenges:

 For some classes, it took them a few lessons to infuse this checklist into their routine and be more self-aware of their progress.

 Students were unsure what they should do if they were not recording in pulse.

2 I can follow the lesson, but I take a while to figure out. Sometimes I need help.

3 I can manage the lesson well!

Therefore, the physical checklist (WILF checklist) was further modified:

• Gradual removal of certain details and scaffolds in the WILF checklist (see Fig 8) when students were able to do it independently.

• Layered on the skills when students were secure with the basics  Quantisation—for more precision  Rhythm bank (see Fig 10)—where students use rhythmic patterns to help vary their accompaniment patterns other than just using the auto-play function, therefore teaching them to make musical choices

• Provided them with the WILF checklist for Recording (see Fig 9), where they have to make even more musical choices, such as the type of accompaniment pattern rather than just the instrument.

• Taught students how to apply the checklist during the student-led demonstration to check if the “student” (acted by the teacher) had met the success criteria.

Fig 6: Samples of the SLS Learning Poll

Your Goal: WALT

Record the harmony for Introduction

1. Check for my class folder “On my iPad” on the Main Page

2. In my folder, Rename my work from “My songs” to “Yourname (13) class”

3. There are 12 bars in section A

4. Go to settings & check if tempo to 90

5. Add a guitar instrument on the Track page

6. Record the introduction (4 bars) with the metronome

 Listen and ensure it’s in pulse

Fig 7: Sample of WILF checklist

1. I know where the playhead should be to record the verse.

Which bar should it be? Bar:

2. Record the verse for 4 bars.

Chord progression is:

3. The 4 bars are in pulse.

4. Loop the 4 bars.

Fig 8: Sample of modified WILF checklist, with removal of scaffolds

Rate your learning for today! 1 2 3 4 5

Your Goal: WALT What do I need to listen/consider when doing the Recording

1. Decide on the accompaniment pattern.

What type of accompaniment pattern do I think is suitable?

2. Is my playhead at the correct bar?

If I record wrongly, what can I do?

3. The metronome is switched on.

Fig 9: Sample of modified WILF checklist for Recording, indicating more musical choices and options to consider

4. Listen to what you have recorded, are you playing in pulse?

(If not, what can you do?)

 e.g. Re-record  Quantisation

Fig 10: Rhythm Bank included in modified WILF checklist

Findings

• Students were extremely motivated by the Kahoot! game. By using the data given, it helped us to address misconceptions at the start of the lesson, and students could learn to be more familiar with the necessary knowledge during the lesson.

• Improvement could be seen through their weekly Kahoot! game, where they could answer the questions faster and more accurately, and there was more evidence of clarity when they started doing their work.

• Data generated for individuals and the class helped the teacher to modify our lesson, differentiating instruction and learning activities that cater to the learners’ needs.

• Students were also able to apply the knowledge better when doing their work.

 They understood WHAT they were learning and WHY they were learning it.

 For example, they were able to draw the link to WHY they needed to create 12 bars for section A in GarageBand because these comprised the Introduction and Verse. They understood how the chord progression affected the number of bars.

Impact of Kahoot! Premium+ and Mentimeter

Impact of Modified Bite-sized Tasks, Modified Feedback and Self-assessment

• Collaborative learning in the modified formative feedback cycle helped create a safe environment for students to explore and make mistakes together.

• It also showed the teacher how students learn and process the new content, and the approaches they would take when doing their work.

• It also allowed them to clarify the standards and success criteria.

• Having the WILF checklist helped the students to gain clarity on their success criteria and allowed them to self-assess.

• Through collaborative learning with the students, it also helped the teachers to be clear with the lesson objectives and track the learning progress of each class.

• From the data, the teacher can also better manage their time to help those who are struggling.

Observables

• The number of students seeking help has dropped drastically. Many were not only able to complete their work on schedule, but they requested for more (e.g. explore other instruments, record additional tracks, use different accompaniment patterns etc) during their work time.

• Student works were observed and aligned with the learning outcomes and success criteria.

Conclusion

Going back to our main research question:

How does clarity in learning impact students’ learning and decision-making?

The main takeaways, in addressing the problems identified, are as follows:

1. Knowledge Retention

• Creating a fun environment for them to be motivated in learning and remembering content.

• Helping them to understand the WHY in their learning (e.g. Why does the Introduction have 4 bars? Understand how the 4 bars are derived rather than pure memorisation)

• Gathering individual and class feedback for better clarity, rather than relying on students who are more vocal to answer.

• Helping us to clarify misconceptions at the start before moving on to the next piece of content.

References

• Hattie, J. A. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 metaanalyses relating to achievement. Routledge.

• Hattie, J. A. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning Routledge.

• Hattie, J., & Clarke, S. (2018). Visible learning: Feedback. Routledge.

• Killian, S. (2021, September 28). Teacher clarity: A potent yet misunderstood teaching strategy. Evidence-Based Teaching. https://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/teacher-clarity/

2. Knowledge Application

• Reducing to bite-sized tasks to make them manageable and helping students to be able to do the task “on demand” before moving on.

• Proper scaffolding and clarity in their learning goals and success criteria, so they know what they needed to achieve.

• Using data to help assess students’ learning and modifying lessons according to their learning needs.

• Building confidence by creating a safe environment for students to explore, make mistakes, clarify standards and make sense of them, and make use of feedback so that they can self-assess their work.

• Gradual removal of scaffolding and layering new skills when students can do it independently.

• Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making thinking visible: How to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. Wiley.

• Sadler, D. R. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18 (2), 119-144. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00117714

• Sadler, D. R. (2007). Perils in the meticulous specification of goals and assessment criteria. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 14 (3), 387-392.

• Stubbs, P. (2019, August 21). Teacher clarity: Finding the ‘why.’ EdTech Digest. https://www.edtechdigest.com/2019/08/21/teacher-clarity-finding-the-why/

The Effects of Peer Teaching and Using ICT Tools in the Classroom with a Focus on Learning the Keyboard

Grace Wong West Spring Secondary School

Background and Context

• Secondary 2 cohort learnt the keyboard in Semester 2 (2021)

• Students had a choice of what song or piece they will play for their formative assessment

• Students also had a choice of whether to use traditional music scores with staff notation in their practice or engage the aid of ICT video tools, such as YouTube piano tutorials that would indicate to the viewer which notes to play on the keyboard

Defining the Issue

Given that all students were at different starting points, some students already knew how to play the keyboard at a certain level while there were other students who were just starting as beginners.

With beginners, I tried my best to scaffold their learning and guide them along with their pieces. However, in reality, there is only one of me to each class of 40 students, hence some of them inevitably had to either engage the assistance of their classmate(s) or use ICT tools.

Research Topic and Questions

The topic is on the effects of peer teaching and using ICT tools in the classroom in learning the keyboard.

Research questions:

• How is the use of ICT tools effective when it comes to learning an instrument?

• How is peer teaching effective when it comes to learning the keyboard?

Methodology

• Observations during lessons

• Questionnaire for all students

Curriculum

Weeks 1 to 3:

• I introduced the mechanics of the keyboard, as well as the basic notes and chords on the keyboard

Weeks 4 to 5:

• Students decided on what piece/song they wanted to learn

Week 6 and onwards:

• Students learnt the song they had chosen, in pairs or individually

• I went around to help the students and scaffold their learning

• When I was busy with other students at any point in time, some engaged the help of their groupmate and that is where peer teaching took place

• I had also given students the option of seeking out the relevant YouTube piano tutorials, as a form of assistance for the students

Research Findings

Observation 1

The majority of students sought assistance from me, and indicated on their questionnaires that they benefited from the demonstrations I had done on the keyboard for them:

Class 2A 65%

Class 2B 60%

Class 2C 75%

Class 2D 50%

Class 2E 67%

Sometimes during peer teaching, a student might also teach the wrong notes or point out the wrong location of the notes on the keyboard. I would then step in to rectify, and in the process, give on-the-spot feedback to the students. This sort of demonstration proved beneficial.

Research Findings

Observation 2

Students were observed to be having fun, judging from their facial expressions and body language.

This was further supported in the questionnaire responses, whereby the majority of students found the module “fun” and “enjoyable”, as seen in the respective percentage figures as follows:

Observation 3

A small number of students appeared stressed over trying to learn the keyboard, and the following percentage of students had remarked in their questionnaires that it was “challenging”:

Research Findings

Observation 4

For those who used the YouTube tutorials, they typically chose piano tutorials that had a visual guide (see Fig 3) to indicate which keys to press on the keyboard.

For those who had used traditional scores, the difficulty was mainly in the initial stage of locating the position of the notes on the keyboard. However, they still chose to continue using the scores because they could then get me to label all the notes in the score for them.

This was also where many opportunities for peer teaching took place, and this was further supported in the questionnaire responses from students who indicated that they had engaged in peer teaching.

Fig 2: Learning with traditional scores

Fig 3: Learning with piano tutorial

Fig 4: Example of a performance from a pair of students

Fig 1: Peer teaching observations

Click here to view recording

Discussion Question 1

“How is the use of ICT tools effective when it comes to learning an instrument?”

Initially, I was quite apprehensive about allowing students to go “online” as I was worried that they would take advantage of the situation and do other irrelevant things online.

However, I realised that the use of ICT tools such as piano tutorials does provide some degree of scaffolding when learning an instrument, hence I would provide this option again next year. The video in Fig 4 was an example of students who learnt their songs from scratch, with the help of piano tutorials.

Question 2

“How is peer teaching effective when it comes to learning the keyboard?”

Although one-to-one guidance and demonstrations from me as the teacher would be the most ideal, it is more often than not unfeasible in the classroom context. This is where peer teaching comes into the picture as the next best alternative to a teacher’s demonstrations.

That is also why I give students the liberty to form their pairings. If the working relationship is good, the progress and results are also likely to be better.

Choice of Song

I had thought of limiting the song choices to just a couple of set pieces, to reduce the difficulties that students would face. However, I think I would not want to limit their choice of songs or their preferences because there might be a greater impetus to learn something new if one is genuinely interested in it.

Conclusion

The processes taken so far all allow room for students’ collaborative as well as independent engagement. Hence, I feel that I would most probably be continuing all of the processes taken this year.

Investigating the Importance of Reflective Learning in Music Teaching and Learning

Asaph Lee and Ang Xin Wei

Punggol Secondary School

Cajon Lesson

All students learn the cajon assessment rhythm bar by bar, with video examples as references.

Research Question

How important is reflective learning in helping students become more self-directed in their learning?

Curriculum Context

Secondary 1 Express, one semester of guitar lessons, one semester of cajon lessons (half a class, about 20 students)

One review lesson is conducted after all students have done their assessments. Teacher explains why each group receives a certain grading.

Here are the assessment rubrics for Sec 1 Cajon which was introduced to students.

1. Accuracy of rhythms (individual) Rhythms are often played wrongly Rhythms are in time sometimes Rhythms are accurate most of the time All rhythms are perfectly executed with precision and accuracy 2. Band cohesion (group) Band has only a few moments of good cohesion Band has some moments of good cohesion Band has good cohesion Band has tight/excellent cohesion between members

3. Stage presence Little stage presence Some stage presence Some engaging stage presence Commanding stage presence

Percussion Assessment

The rhythm that students have to perform.

Click here to listen to the rhythms

Here are the assessment rubrics for Sec 1 Guitar which was introduced to students:

Able to strum 0-1 of the chords required in the song

Able to strum 2 chords required in the song

Able to strum all of the chords required in the song most of the time, with occasional slight inaccuracy

2. Rhythms Unable to follow the rhythm of the backing track

Able to strum but not in sync with backing track

Able to strum in sync with backing track/singing with slight errors

Able to strum the chords required in the song perfectly

Able to strum the chords perfectly with precision and accuracy with backing track/singing throughout

Guitar Lesson

Methodology

Reflection surveys

Students are guided by reflection questions. However, we applied different ways in which the reflection was conducted:

• For the Cajon group, we had a control group and a test group to find out if there was a difference between reflecting with and without a video recording of themselves.

• For the Guitar group, we had students first reflecting without the video recording, and then reflecting with their video recording to compare the differences in their reflection.

Pre-assessment Survey:

Self-reflection

1. Are there any challenges faced during the preparation stage of your assessment? E.g. unable to get the rhythms right, difficulty in playing together as a group, etc.

2. Can you elaborate on the challenge(s) faced?

3. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you expect yourself to do for your first take? (Individual playing)

4. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you expect yourself to do for your first take? (Group playing)

5. Why did you choose the rating ?

6. How else do you think you/your band could have improved?

Post-assessment Survey:

Self-reflection with video

1. Are you satisfied with your first take?

2. Can you elaborate on the challenge(s) faced during your first take?

3. Why are you satisfied with your first take? What has been done well?

4. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did you do for your first take? (Individual playing)

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did you do for your first take? (Group playing)

6. How else do you think you/your band could have improved?

Findings – How reflective learning looks like during Guitar lesson

First Take

We observed that they were not in sync with some wrong chords and not keeping with the backing track.

Listen to the first take of a groupʼs guitar performance

Click here to listen

Students completed a reflection based on their memory of their performance one week after the first take. First, they reflected without a video recording. After which, they viewed the video recording of their performance and reflected once again. A comparison is shown below.

Questions Responses (without watching the video) Responses (after watching the video)

• Unable to strum at the correct time.

Can you elaborate on the challenge(s) faced?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you expect yourself to do for your first take?

Findings

• Took too long to move to the next note.

(Individual playing) 4 (average)

On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you expect yourself to do for your first take?

(Group playing)

Why did you choose the rating?

• I did not perform up to standard.

• I’m slow at switching.

• We were not on beat and messed up many chords.

• Not strumming on beat.

How else do you think you/your band could have improved?

• We could have practised more and be more coordinated.

• I did not strum on time for most chords as I was unsure, but my friend could strum more on time.

• Mastering the chords and stay on beat.

• Practise the chords and memorise them.

Comparing the first and second reflections, there was a higher rating for the reflection with the video as well as more precise comments for what they could improve on.

Second Take

Survey: Post-assessment reflection

Here is the same group’s recording after another week of practice.

The video showed that they improved and they also challenged themselves to play up to speed, and to strum on the right chords.

Questions

Listen to the second take of the same groupʼs guitar performance

Click here to listen

Responses

Are you satisfied with your second take? Yes.

Why are you satisfied with your second take? What has been done well? We did all the right chords and the tempo was stable.

I was able to play the guitar well and I did not need to refer to the chords to be able to play.

What did you do differently to put on a better performance? I played my instrument with confidence.

I practised at home.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did you do for your first take? (Individual playing) 7

On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did you do for your first take? (Group playing) 6

Is there anything you would like to try differently? Would like to try more advanced strumming patterns instead of 1 simple strum.

We observed that students took the feedback for themselves and acted upon it. Their selfratings were higher for the next take, and they also wanted to try more advanced strumming patterns which showed their increased confidence.

Observations

• From the students’ responses, most students’ self-ratings improved as we had expected. However, some students rated themselves lower, perhaps reflecting that they are now more conscious and more critical of themselves.

• Students may have thought that there were no challenges initially, but after the first and second takes, they found challenges, demonstrating that they were more cognisant of what was expected of them.

• The pre-task survey also allowed the teacher to clarify questions from students.

• The reflection survey allowed students to identify specific aspects of music such as tempo, intensity, ensemble playing and specific areas they needed to work on.

• Students watching the videos could pinpoint which student was not playing together compared to the students given only verbal feedback.

• Students watching the videos showed eureka moments. For example, we heard them exclaim, “OHHHHH”, “Like that ah”.

• There were more conversations between the students who watched the videos compared to the students who were given only verbal feedback.

Conclusion

How important is reflective learning in helping students become more selfdirected in their learning?

1. Reflective learning helps students to be able to identify the problem(s) more accurately and make improvements accordingly.

2. Reflective learning supports selfdirected learning especially in current contexts of blended learning.

3. Reflective learning can be multimodal involving audio and video recordings. These recordings stimulated deeper reflections.

4. Optimal learning and teaching can be achieved when coupled with timely feedback from peers and teachers.

SECTION 6

Character and Citizenship

Education

New Possibilities in Developing Social-Emotional Learning Competencies and Identities to Build Character and Citizenship

176

Jasmine Peh explores using music to develop SEL competencies in her intervention programme for at-risk students.

184

Jermain Cho found that having students research and perform songs by Singapore singer-songwriters in a ukulele module changes students’ views on Singapore music.

Developing Social and Emotional Competencies Through Music Listening

Introduction

As both the Assistant Year-Head and Music Teacher, I thought that it would be a great opportunity for me to look into how music, as a tool, can develop my students’ Social Emotional Learning.

What Is Social Emotional Learning?

Social Emotional Learning, also known as SEL, refers to soft skills that are deemed essential for a student’s personal and social well-being. SEL is important because it prepares students for life beyond school. They develop healthy identities through recognising and regulating their own emotions and understanding their own needs, communicating effectively,

and making responsible decisions. It increases their capacity to learn positively and independently and most importantly, prepares them for the future where they are able to contribute back to society effectively.

There are five key components to social-emotional competencies: selfawareness, social awareness, selfmanagement, relationship management and responsible decision-making. In Singapore, the main platforms on which SEL is taught are Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) lessons, counselling sessions, lessons on Cyber-wellness, national education, Education and Career Guidance (ECG) sessions with ECG counsellor and family education by parents.

Inquiry Question

From my readings, I learnt that music could evoke a wide range of feelings and emotions (Sloboda, O’Neill, & Ivaldi, 2001; Koelsch, 2014) and the use of familiar tunes could also transport a person back in time (Jenkins, 2014). This therefore led to my research question for this study: “What music genre and/ or activities could help students develop social and emotional competencies?”

Methodology

Target Six Secondary 2 and 3 students of mixed ability (five females, one male)

Students were recommended by the School Counsellor and Allied Educator (Learning and Behavioural Support) [AED (LBS)]

Timeline Music Intervention Sessions between Term 3 Week 6 and Term 4 Week 3

This time frame was chosen to support the students as they would be sitting for their class tests and preparing for the end-of-year examinations

Duration 45-50 minutes per session

The students would see me when they did not have lessons during curriculum time. For example, some students are exempted from taking Mother Tongue, so they were able to meet me for the music intervention session. Alternatively, they could see me for the session on days they were not meeting the school counsellor.

Resources Selected worksheets taken from Music Education and Social Emotional Learning: The Heart of Teaching Music – Student Workbook by Scott Edgar

Music Playlist

Venue Music Room

Data Teacher’s and Students’ Reflections, observations during sessions, and students’ verbal and written responses on the worksheets

Process

To facilitate the music intervention sessions, I used selected worksheets from Music Education and Social Emotional Learning: The Heart of Teaching Music – Student Workbook by Scott Edgar

(see Fig 1). The worksheets are placed neatly in a file and distributed to the students during the first session.

Besides the worksheets, a range of songs was selected and compiled into a playlist. These songs did not contain words as I

Jasmine Peh

Pasir Ris Secondary School

thought lyrics might distract the listener as they might play a part in influencing the student’s impression and thoughts. These songs are mainly original soundtracks from virtual games and movies.

2. Son de vent by Nobuyuki Tsujii

3. Tender Strength by Yu-Peng Chen & HOYO-MiX

4. Liyue by Yu-Peng Chen & HOYO-MiX

6. Waltzes, Op. 39: No. 15 in A Major (Arr. for Orchestra) by Johannes Brahms

7. Room with a View by Yiruma

8. N’s Farewell by Shota Kageyama

Most students were able to meet me at least twice for this music intervention session.

During the first session, the student would complete the “Musical Driver’s License” worksheet. This worksheet served as a cover page to the file. Not only that, but it

Fig 1: Worksheets by Scott Edgar which were used for the sessions

was also an opportunity for me to establish and build rapport with them, and allowed me to ask questions related to their interest.

Once the cover page was completed, we proceeded to identify their mood through the “Emoji Word Bank” chart. This chart was heavily used throughout the intervention sessions. It served as a checkpoint for me to gauge students’ comfort level in sharing certain topics/ issues that they deemed sensitive.

Other worksheets introduced were “Take the Temperature”, “Music by Emotion” and “My Goals & Growth” (see Fig 1).

The “Take the Temperature” worksheet was one of the main activities where I allowed students to choose the song from the music playlist. Tapping on the keywords in the worksheet, we would discuss and focus on the musical intensity of the music and eventually relate it to their emotions and mood.

The “Music by Emotion” worksheet allowed me the opportunity to discuss with my students how music can elevate one’s mood and emotions. For example, an ascending pattern played by the string section in Liyue (one of the songs from the playlist) could depict excitement, happiness and positivity. However, due to time constraints, I was unable to dwell deeper into other components of the worksheet this year.

The “My Goals & Growth” worksheet was used in Term 4. It served as a fresh start to a new term and it was also a term where students would be preparing for and sitting their end-of-year exams. I thought

that this worksheet was relevant because it would help them to set realistic goals (academical, personal and music).

Lastly, I knew that some of them did not have a favourite pastime, and I gave them a “Color My World” worksheet and advised them to do this activity when they were taking a break from revision or were just feeling tired. Their artwork would only be shown to me after their exams.

Anecdotes of the Sessions

My sessions with them did not happen weekly, as some were absent on days that I was supposed to meet them, or my timetable did not match with their free time. Usually, I would see them on Thursdays. Most of them met me at least twice apart from Sam, but I felt that all the stories were worth sharing.

Persis Overture by James L. Hosay

Clair de lune by Claude Debussy

Lynn

Secondary 2 Express

Student wants to learn to establish and maintain good relationships with people.

I had two sessions with Lynn. She is a smart girl but she had difficulties in expressing herself without getting into arguments with others. She argued with her mum the most and tried to avoid talking to her.

At the start of the second session, she came in and told me that she was feeling very tired and upset. Back then, I was already playing N’s Farewell. She sat down, and without me asking, said, “Ms Jasmine, I feel like I want to talk to my mum again.” She had not been talking to her mum and wanted to do so again. I knew that she was not staying with her mum then and was staying with her grandmother. However, I acted as though I was not aware of that. But as an

adult, I thought it would be appropriate for me to advise her. I told her to gather courage and probably start with an apology with no other comments made. She agreed because she came to know that whenever she spoke to her mum, the chance of it ending in an argument was very high. I told her to listen to what her mum had to say and work things out from there.

I could see that she was less tense compared to a few minutes ago when she came in. She continued to talk about wanting to inspire people around her if she had a chance to speak on stage. She was aware that many of her friends were not happy or struggling with friendships and she wanted to encourage them to focus on what they were able to control. Upon hearing that, I motivated her to record her speech, as a podcast, and share it with her friends. I could see her enthusiasm and wanting to help people around her. She thanked me and started working on it after our session.

Sam

Secondary 2 Normal (Technical)

Student is physically and mentally active. Keen to find ways to regulate his thoughts.

The first time I met Sam, he was sweating so much. He came from another lesson and I asked why he was sweating so much. He did not know why. I gave him a tissue to wipe the sweat and got him to share with me about how he felt and introduced him to the music. He told me he was feeling nervous about this session and thought he was going to get scolded. The song he chose was Son de vent. Because he was sweating so much and panting, I decided to calm him down by asking him about something he loves, taekwondo, and I also assured him that this was not going to be a session of scolding.

He talked about his ambition which was to be like his instructor. I asked him if he could focus and aim for the goal, he told me that his mind could be very fuzzy at times. We talked about how he could process his thoughts by calming down, which was what was already happening on the spot, and I proved to him that he needed to settle down before thinking of anything. I also advised him to pen his thoughts down, if it helped. Then, unexpectedly, he said, “Cher, this music is very soothing. What is the title again?” I was excited because he had shared with me that his favourite music was mostly rap with a heavy bass, and he hardly listened to such songs. I took the opportunity to encourage him to listen to the song during his free time, as it could help him to process his thoughts better.

Elly

Jean

Secondary 3 Normal (Academic)

Student is not going through any emotional struggles. Sessions were a form of enrichment.

Jean is musically inclined. Her sessions with me were slightly different from the others – we delved deeper into musical elements like tonality, dynamics and expression. She chose Persis Overture as the song that she wanted to listen to. Upon listening to it, she

loved the part that featured the solo by the oboe player. She talked about how the music brought her back to her younger days where she was more carefree. She mentioned that this song motivated her to play her instrument in a concert band better. She plays the bass clarinet. She also talked about how the pattern of the music helped her to calm her mind that day and I told her to write this title down as a reminder that this song could help her regulate her mood whenever she was feeling slightly down.

Secondary

2 Normal (Academic)

Student wants to learn to regulate her thoughts and be able to manage emotions.

Elly chose to listen to Room with a View in this session because she was a fan of Yiruma. While the music played, we talked about the repetition of the melody. She shared that the repetition itself felt as though it was a reminder to her to achieve her goals. She admitted that she tended to get distracted by family issues and that

Note: Pseudonyms

it was causing her to underperform in her studies. She talked about wanting to meet her dad more often because they only got to meet each other fortnightly. Her goal was to be able to see her dad more often, have a better relationship with her mother and be able to focus on studies. I advised her to do what she could control and take baby steps to achieve her goal in her studies and managing her thoughts on her parents. She said that she would use this music as a reminder to help her focus and study. She also found that the song helped her to remain calm and process her thoughts better. I was happy to hear that.

Findings and Discussion

From the study, three themes emerged. They are:

1. Building trust between teacher and students

2. Appropriate use of music

3. Development of social and emotional competencies

Building Trust Between Teacher and Students

Identify subjects

check-in

Let me share with you how trust was built through my sessions with these students. First, I had to identify their interests. The “Musical Driver’s License” worksheet helped me to understand the students better. Before I started the session, I would always check on my students’ mood, using the “Emoji Word Bank” chart and then letting them select the music they wanted to listen to. I would also direct them to the questions in the worksheet. As some of the questions could be quite personal, I would continue to check on their mood with the “Emoji Word Bank” chart; this helped me to know how they were feeling and gauge the further questions I should ask. I would end the session when both of us felt that we had come to an agreement that something realistic/practical could be done in their situation. For example, how to start a conversation again with someone whom they have not been talking to for a while. I believe trust was built when regular mood check-ins were done.

Appropriate Use of Music

check-in

The use of music is important for the intervention.

The music pieces that were introduced contained no words/lyrics as mentioned earlier. Instruments were generally orchestral instruments. The music had a tempo ranging from Adagio to Moderato and had specific structures (e.g. ascending/ descending patterns, repetitions).

These music pieces were appropriate because they eliminated distractions such as lyrics. The pieces were also chosen

by students and could evoke their past experiences and memories. The tempo of the music was intended to calm the students and evoke certain past experiences/memories.

Development of SEL Competencies

The development of social and emotional competencies was observed during the mood check-ins and through their ability to address their responses clearly on worksheets.

Competencies like self-awareness, selfmanagement, relationship management and responsible decision-making were observed. Through the discussions with these students, they demonstrated the ability to voice out their thoughts naturally to me. They were able to identify and overcome their problems (e.g. improving relationships, academic performance, musical performance), articulate their strengths and weaknesses, and also share their interest, inspiration and motivation.

Summary

Music as a tool can be used to regulate individual emotions, leading to the development of social and emotional competencies.

The knowledge of an appropriate selection of musical pieces has the potential to influence the outcome of intervention. Therefore, educators involved in counselling can consider infusing music as an instrument in their sessions. Even if the counsellor is not musically trained, they can employ the help of music educators to support them, similar to how I worked closely with my counsellor and AED (LBS). Finally, we do not work in silos – I would share my findings with my counsellors and AED (LBS) after each session and we would see how we could further support these students. The study is still ongoing, and I look forward to seeing these students and building on their social and emotional competencies.

References

• Edgar, S. N. (2017). Music education and social emotional learning: The heart of teaching music. GIA Publications.

• Edgar, S. N. (2019). Music education and social emotional learning, the heart of teaching music, student workbook. GIA Publications.

• Jenkins, T. (2014, October 21). Why does music evoke memories?. BBC Culture. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140417why-does-music-evoke-memories

• Koelsch, S. (2014). Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(3), 170-180.

• Ministry of Education Singapore. (2021). Social and emotional learning. https://www.moe.gov.sg/programmes/socialand-emotional-learning

• Sloboda, J. A., O’Neill, S. A., & Ivaldi, A. (2001). Functions of music in everyday life: An exploratory study using the Experience Sampling Method. Musicae Scientiae, 5(1), 9-32. https://doi:10.1177/102986490100500102

Fig 2: Building Trust

Inculcating Interest in Singapore Music Through Ukulele Module

Jermain Cho

Edgefield Secondary School Background

At the RiME Conference of 2019, the keynote speaker, Professor Mari Shiobara, said that the Japanese government made it mandatory for Japanese folk music to be taught in Japanese classrooms. It posed a challenge for teachers to engage the teenagers as the style of folk singing was difficult to identify with, and this “alienness” to modern audiences created a sense of disconnect.

Drawing from curriculum resources, Prof Shiobara cited that:

1. Songs had to be relevant to the everyday lives of the students, the schools and their surrounding communities.

2. Songs had to be constructed in a way that the students could appreciate and have affective responses to traditional music of our country as well as one’s hometown.

The above became my guiding thoughts for the teaching of a Singapore Music module.

She also mentioned that teachers lacked familiarity with Japanese folk music and asked how and in what ways young students could connect with music that their grandparents’ generation enjoyed.

My further thoughts are that:

1. Teachers had to be passionate and sure about the knowledge they are teaching

2. Teachers must consider, how and in what ways the young students can connect with folk music

My questions are:

1. Why should we teach Singapore/ Folk Music? What is the value in doing that?

2. How can we integrate Singapore/ Folk Music effectively such that the module becomes more meaningful and engaging?

Singapore’s Classroom Context

One of our music syllabus learning outcomes (LO) is that students should appreciate music from the Singapore culture. I am curious about the following:

• Are students interested in these songs? Should students be interested in these songs? Why should they be, are they worth teaching and if so, how do we get them to be involved genuinely?

I set out to craft a module exploring local music with a few guiding principles:

1. “Singapore Music”– a loose definition of anything justifiably Singapore-related (e.g. songs written by Singaporeans, folk songs, songs about our heritage, National Day songs).

2. Genuine interest or purpose must be present before meaningful learning can take place – one cannot force one’s students to like something.

3. Meaningful learning is active, constructive and durable. It implies understanding.

Inquiry Question

How are students’ interest in Singapore Music enhanced after a ukulele module incorporating local music?

Methodology

Target:

Two Secondary 2 Full-Subject-Based Banding (FSBB) classes with some students with prior knowledge in playing the ukulele

Data:

Qualitative: Narrative (Recording of classroom encounters and reflection on entire process)

Quantitative: Analysis of pre- & postsurvey data

Pre-survey

Do you listen to local music?

48 responses

From the responses, most students from both classes do not listen to local music (or Singapore Music).

41 responses NO YES

Class A

How interested are you in local music?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how interested are you in local music? 48 responses

Class B

responses

From the responses, most students in both classes are not as interested in Singapore Music since most students indicated at the lower end of the scale of 1 to 10 for both classes.

Name some local song titles that you know

Idk River south I don't know. I do not know any

Home Don't know Geniuses and thieves, only yours Yi qian nian yi hou

Nil I don't know Jj Lim song tomorrow's here today

Save my world none Majulah singapura NIL

I don't really know one National Anthem I don't know any. sorry idk any

Chan Mali Chan Do not know Electricity Nothing

Clif 1 police song I don't know any local songs. idk dunno

From the responses, most students in both classes could not state a Singapore song title.

There can be a chance that there is something interesting about local music.

48 responses

From the responses, however, it is encouraging to know that most students in both classes are open to Singapore Music.

41 responses

Module Execution

Week 1 Introduction to ukulele

Week 2-4

Basic chord knowledge (C, F, G, Am, G7)

Week 5

6 strumming patterns

Frontal Teaching / Call & Response / Used familiar pop songs

Week 6-10 Group Creations & Sharing

• Groups preallocated

• Informal / self-directed learning

The first five weeks in this 10 week-module was mainly frontal teaching, with call and response used to teach or recap the basics of ukulele (ukulele parts, basic chord knowledge and strumming patterns).

The remaining five weeks were used for informal and self-directed learning where students had to pick and justify a Singapore song and to accompany the original recording through the use of instruments accompanying the original recording. There was no singing involved due to the SMM restrictions during the COVID-19 period.

After 10 weeks, students had to present the following:

a. Group accompaniment performance of a selected Singapore song (with a minimum of 1 verse and 1 chorus), 30%

b. Research presentation, 20% Guiding questions were provided to students (e.g. What is this song about? Why did your group choose this song? What is different about your song vis-àvis the original)

WHY?

is the song so interesting?

• The song has various beats

• It had a very futuristic vibe

• Thereʼs only two synth lines

• It is very stripped down

• We couldnʼt figure out the instruments used and wanted to try the ukulele version out

Fig 1: Examples of students’ research and presentation

Grouping arrangements:

• The groups were pre-determined with 5-6 members a group to ensure mixing of streams.

• Students had to use ukuleles but could choose to include other instruments.

• One student from the Normal (Technical) stream did not have knowledge on playing the keyboard but he wanted to try it out. He performed a successful accompaniment at the end of the module even though the chords were simple.

• Students had to perform for a minimum of one verse to the chorus

• Some groups stuck to the requirements, others performed the entire song.

• I gave them some ideas or keywords on what could constitute as a Singapore song to get them started, for example, examples from folk songs, NDP songs and local pop songs as well as suggested the names of some local artistes.

Findings

Music

Students’ chosen songs belonged to mainstream Pop by Singapore songwriters. Two groups chose NDP songs but none chose folk songs.

Both classes enjoyed (i) ukulele playing aspect the most, (ii) module being “fun”.

I enjoyed the Ukulele Ensemble module on Singapore Music.

of 1 to 10)

When asked what they enjoyed about the module:

Many students in 2EC and 2ES found self-fulfilment in playing the ukulele. Many

students in 2EC also enjoyed working with their group mates (see table 1) while many students in 2ES enjoyed playing with Singapore songs (see table 2).

Table 1: Qualitative comments from 2EC

Lesson Aspect (Coded from qualitative responses) No. of students Comments from students

Fun/Self-enjoyment/Self-fulfilment 11 It was exciting and enjoyable to learn.

Playing (new) instrument 11 It has been a blast learning how to play the ukulele…

I enjoyed the fact that I can play guitar which I really like…

Working/Playing together with friends 7 Being able to learn alongside my peers and bond with others makes the experience extra fun.

We get to understand our group mates better.

Playing Singapore songs/Sense of pride 2 …more than that, playing local songs!

Patient, interesting teacher 1 The teacher was patient and made the class interesting…

Table 2: Qualitative comments from 2ES

Lesson Aspect (Coded from qualitative responses) No. of students Comments from students

Playing (new) instrument 10 Because the tune of the ukulele sounds very low.

I love playing instruments and having fun.

We get to play the ukuleles.

Fun/Self-enjoyment/Self-fulfilment 8 It was fun to be able to come up with our own strumming patterns.

It was fun and interesting.

Playing Singapore songs/Sense of pride 8 Previously I don’t know any local music till the music class taught me some things about local music.

It made me realise that not only Singapore Music is worth appreciating but also as good as pop music.

After all my classmates presented, I’m surprised that local songs can turn out so beautifully through ukulele.

1 The process isn’t easy, practice really makes perfect and every lesson is

in every group <3

Students were also asked to tick what aspects of the module they enjoyed most. Both classes had similar results in that (1) they had the chance to try creating the song together, (2) the songs themselves and (3) that they could work together with friends.

What did you enjoy most about the Ukulele Ensemble module about Singapore Music?

Tick all that apply

The songs

The artistes

Having the chance to try create

The meaning behind the songs

Working with friends

Singaporean Pride

Playing the instruments

After the module, students could list Singapore song names – at least the ones they performed or were performed by their friends. There were a larger percentage of students who became more open to listening to Singapore Music after the module. This could indicate a possible starting point to interest students in Singapore Folk Music.

I am now more open to listening to Singapore Music than before.

Research and Presentation

The research component helped students better understand the songs they were

performing. Rather than just learning to perform the song, i.e. just strumming chords.

The research part of the module has helped me to understand the song better.

Collaboration

It is possible for different streams to work together, using all their different abilities to produce a good piece of work and enjoy the experience. For both classes, the survey showed that all of them ranked the group they were working with favourably.

More than 90% were open to working with people from different backgrounds. In 2EC, there were three students who had some difficulties working with each other, but they persisted and worked through it and completed the module.

I can say that I am more open to working with different types of people after this module.

I like the group that I am working with. (rated on a scale of 1-10)

Conclusion

The teacher must first see the meaning behind the modules that they create before these can be meaningful for students. In addition, collaboration and giving students choice are important factors in creating interest and ownership in learning. To extend the module further, I would start the module by using Singapore songs in the initial teaching process, instead of using familiar pop songs when teaching

ukulele chords and strumming patterns. In addition, I could make it a requirement for students to involve folk songs in the future, but I would challenge them to figure out how they could make these folks songs more relevant and interesting to our times.

“Singapore music is the music that is created by our students!” This was an insight given to me by Dr Kelly Tang, Master Teacher (Music). I think we could then ask, what music will our students create?

Inquiry-based Learning

New Possibilities to Begin Inquirybased Learning Through Improvisation and Authentic Learning Tasks

Ng Eng Kee explores the benefits of improvisation from his students’ perspective.

Michael Cartwright explores the impact of real-world scenarios in composition tasks to enable an inquirybased approach in music learning.

Investigating the Impact of Improvisation on Musical Confidence and Engagement of Students

Rationale

Ng Eng Kee

Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Secondary)

The inclusion of creativity is one of the key areas of focus in the music curriculum. Creativity includes imagination, origination, invention, interpretation and personalised imitation – just to name a few dimensions of creativity. Improvisation is one of the strategies that music teachers can use to foster creativity within the classroom. When improvising, students need to coordinate ear, eye and imagination to perform what is heard in the mind.

As a trained Classical singer, I am accustomed to learning the music score faithfully, taking into consideration performance practice and the intent of composers. Hence, music improvisation was never a key feature in my own musical journey. In fact, I am not comfortable with improvising music.

I have heard about the benefits of including improvisation in the music curriculum. And therefore, I got curious.

Research Question & Purpose

Primary Research Questions Secondary Research Questions

• What are the benefits of incorporating improvisation in the music curriculum?

• Does improvisation increase musical confidence and engagement of students?

• What are the strategies to incorporate improvisation?

• What are the barriers to improvising and how to address these barriers?

Methodology

Profile of Students Procedure

• 78 students from two Secondary 1 Full Subject-Based Banding classes

• Students have a range of musical abilities

• Pre- and Post-Project Survey

• Reflections of lessons and observations of students

• Combination of face-to-face and blended lesson delivery due to COVID-19 situation

Curriculum

Semester 1

Content Strategies Skills

• Mo Li Hua & erhu/pipa

• Auld Lang Syne & bagpipes

• Shenandoah & harmonica

• Rasa Sayang & jazz singing

• Sakura & koto

• Learn to play tune on handchimes & Orff instruments

• Learn to accompany tune with ostinato rhythms using percussion instruments

• Learn to accompany the tune with chords

In Semester 1, the Secondary 1 students learnt the various folk tunes around the world. Fig 1 shows the content and skills students were required to master. Primarily, the students learnt these folk tunes by reading musical scores.

Sample Music Score

• Score reading using symbols and letter names

• Group work/group rehearsal led by students when allowed

• The Student Learning Space (SLS) lessons to learn to appreciate the folk songs and instruments (for example, bagpipes, erhu, koto)

Fig 2 shows an example of a score which students encountered in the music lesson. I removed the barrier of note literacy by replacing conventional staff notation with letter names, symbols and colours.

Semester

In Semester 2, I taught the students how to improvise using two folk tunes.

Learning Outcomes for Mo Li Hua and Sakura:

• Students are able to improvise using call and response, e.g.

 Repeat exactly what the teacher plays

 Respond to teacher by changing the notes while keeping to the same rhythm

• Students are able to embellish folk tunes with appropriate ornaments (e.g. jia hua) and/or idiomatic instrumental techniques (e.g. tremolo on pipa, glissando on erhu)

Fig 1: Secondary 1 music lessons in Semester 1

Fig 2: Example of score showing the form of Rasa Sayang and colour coding of chords

Criteria

Notes & Rhythms

Harnessing ICT

Google Classroom had been set up for the students. The various resources were stored in Google Classroom for ease of access and students submitted their video recording via Google Classroom. Some of the students chose to record at home, others in school. Some preferred to use acoustic instruments, while others performed on virtual instruments on the iPad. They could submit and resubmit their recording to meet their own expectations.

Assessment Task & Rubrics

For the summative assessment, the students recorded themselves improvising the Chinese folk tune Mo Li Hua. They had a choice to use the simplified version if they could not manage the original version. It was interesting to me that most students preferred to improvise the original version of Mo Li Hua. The assessment rubrics is given in Fig 3.

Students’ Work

Here are three samples of their submissions.

Data Collection/Findings

Competence in Improvisation

The three questions that measure students’ competence in improvising as seen in Fig 4 show improvements in the results after the students have gone through the series of lessons on improvisation.

Most of the notes & rhythms are performed incorrectly

Many of the notes & rhythms are performed incorrectly Perform most of the notes & rhythms correctly with few errors Confidently perform all pitches correctly

Tempo Frequent breakdowns Some fluctuating tempos and hesitations which affect the flow of the music

A few hesitations which do not affect the flow of the music Consistent and good control of tempo

Improvisation Ineffective improvisation Acceptable improvisation Effective improvisation Spontaneous, creative and effective improvisation

Technique Unfamiliar with the instrument; student showed little to no preparation prior to recording Performance demonstrates basic technical control; student showed some amount of preparation Good control of the instrument; performance shows large amount of preparation Excellent control of the instrument; performance shows great deal of preparation

Attitude Towards Improvisation

While there was an increase in students’ positive response towards learning the different improvisation techniques, there was a slight decrease in positive responses in the process of music-making and music creating.

Fig 3: Assessment rubrics

Fig 4: Competence in improvisation

Fig 5: Attitude towards improvisation

When probed, many students shared that it was tough to think of ways to improvise Mo Li Hua. Some even said that they were confused because they tended to miss notes or could not remember what they were improvising. Items

Nevertheless, 80% of them found that learning how to improvise was a worthwhile musical endeavour and experience.

Perceived Benefits of Improvisation

In terms of perceived benefits, students generally expressed an increase in positive responses. This set of data in Fig 6 supports my primary research questions, although I wish more students would agree that they have benefited from the lessons on music improvisation.

The way the students described how they have benefited from learning music improvisation is indeed very encouraging and helped me to strengthen my resolve to feature this strategy permanently in my music lessons.

78% of the student participants reported that they have benefited from learning how to do music improvisation. Many of them cited the ability to personalise the tune being a main reason for the positive responses.

• “It helped me put my own spin on the songs I learnt to make them more personalised and allowed me to learn more about the type of song

I am playing to figure out what type of improvisation would work best.”

• “It boosts my creativity and encourages me to think faster on the spot, so that I can come up with an original variation of the given tune.”

• “I have learnt that even if we might not be very talented in music, we are still able to make music using improvisations that still sound nice.”

• “I will be able to personalise songs.”

Interest & Engagement

Close to 75% of the student participants reported that learning to improvise has helped them to be more interested or engaged in music lessons.

• “Improvising enables me to discover how well I am with music. Despite not having a musical background, after this year’s music lesson, I feel that I enjoyed the classes when we were allowed to improvise music.”

• “Improvisation is something new that I have learnt, and I feel happier after making some amendments to the music that is to my liking.”

• “I have learnt to appreciate music through this interesting concept of improvisation, since everyone can

I don’t really like it as much, I preferred other lessons of just learning a new song

improvise their own way at their own level of musical ability. This makes me more engaged during music lessons, as I can use my own creativity and ideas to generate new pieces of music based on Mo Li Hua.”

• “It takes effort to learn to improvise and I find it fun to do so.

However, as seen in Fig 5, only 51% of the students indicated they enjoy music-making and music creating using improvisation. It seems like the students do not equate interest and engagement with enjoyment. I wish I had more time to investigate the seemingly contradictory response from the students.

Fig

Fig 7: Findings on benefits

I am not really interested in music

Fig 8: Findings on interest and engagement

Empowerment

Approximately 74% of the student participants responded positively to the question that learning to improvise helped them to be more interested or engaged in music lessons. Many of them could articulate why they felt empowered through music improvisation as shown in Fig 9.

• “Originally, I could only play the really easy songs on the piano, without any improvising. However, after learning how to improvise

Mo Li Hua, not only was I able to learn a longer song, I was also able to improvise on a harder and longer song.”

• “Music improvisation can be applied to any piece of music or tune, so I know how to use improvisation to make novel musical pieces.”

• “I know how to change how the music sounds like and can play it on different instruments.” [The respondent is referring to virtual instruments on the iPad.]

Self-directed Learners

Close to 88% of the respondents agreed that the task has made them more selfdirected. I see that the way I asked them to submit their final musical output was a game changer for them. The use of technological tools has helped students to be more self-directed.

• “I can think of new and creative ways to film my video, thus I feel I have become more self-directed.”

• “In the past years, I have never done anything like recording ourselves for an assessment so when I tried recording, I learnt to be more independent.”

• “I was able to complete the assignment by myself without asking for much help as I managed to learn many ways of improvisation during music lessons. Although I faced some difficulties trying to apply the methods, I managed to complete the improvisation of the song.”

12.3%

87.7%

I am not really interested in music

Fig 9: Findings for empowerment

Relevance

A resounding 95% of the students agreed that music improvisation is relevant to music learning. This finding is important to me personally. It gives me a strong mandate to implement improvisation in my music lessons.

• “Anyone can learn it at different levels of difficulty and apply it to any piece of music to create their own improvised piece.”

• “Improvisation can make the original music piece sound slightly different than the original and I think that improvisation also helps give more choices to people when they want to modify music.”

Fig 10: Findings on self-directed learners

• “Music improvisation allows for the honing of many skills necessary when learning music.”

• “Without it I don’t think that we can make interesting remixes or parodies.”

• “It increases the mind’s ability to form ideas.”

Fig 11: Findings on relevance

Reflections

Teacher’s pre-conceived notion on how music should be learnt and taught –learning music with a score vs learning music without a score

While it is true that because I am classically trained, there was a lack of interest on my part to introduce improvisation in my music lessons, the convenience of teaching music using a score further strengthened my preconceived belief that using printed music is a necessity.

Through this project, I realised that reading a score is a passive action if the students consider only the written notes and do not dedicate the proper attention to musical communication with the other performers

and the audience. Improvisation, on the other hand, provides stimuli for students to reflect on the qualities of the sound produced – developing a real-time sound dialogue with the other performers. Improvisation also activates several cognitive processes and enhances the coordination of complex abilities, for example, transferring what the students hear into producing sounds on an instrument – be it just a repetition or other types of responses.

Teacher’s prior experience with improvisation

I always feel that I lack the necessary training to teach music improvisation, and therefore I do not feel confident enough to teach it in the music classroom without

using a printed score. However, upon further reflection, it is not true that I did not have prior experience in music improvisation whether as a student or as a teacher. I have attended several music workshops to improve my own teaching. There were resources provided by the Orff, Kodaly or Musical Futures workshops to help me find stimulating ways to improve my teaching through improvisation.

It is just that I am so accustomed to my comfortable way of delivering the music lessons that I did not make the effort to include improvisation in my lessons. I do not deny that it would take a lot of mental effort to move out of the comfort zone. Through this Critical Inquiry process, I have experienced first-hand how the students enjoyed themselves trying to recreate a new version of Mo Li Hua through improvisation. This will surely be a strong motivating factor to push me towards including improvisation in my future lessons.

Prohibition of singing in music classroom due to COVID-19 SMM

On another note, COVID-19 Safe Management Measures (SMM) which prohibited singing have been a huge hurdle for me because singing in class is my most comfortable method of teaching music by helping the students to develop inner hearing and musical sensitivity. When this pandemic is behind us and I can use singing in the music classroom again, it will add to the repertoire of strategies to incorporate improvisation in music lessons.

Conclusion

Students are musically more confident and more engaged having learnt the various improvisation techniques. Many students also enjoyed the challenge of improvisation. However, as the music teacher, I hold the key to unlock the door and show the way for students to get started with music improvisation.

The next step forward

To further deepen my understanding, I hope to do case studies of experienced teachers to learn how they teach improvisation in lower secondary music classes. This would enable me to learn from them the specific strategies, approaches and methods for teaching improvisation.

Authentic Learning Through Real-world Scenarios in Composition Assignments

Michael Cartwright

Yio Chu

Kang Secondary School

Inquiry Question

How do my students experience an “authentic learning” composition assignment through real-world scenarios?

The term authentic learning refers to “a wide variety of educational and instructional techniques focused on connecting what students are taught in school to real-world issues, problems, and applications. The basic idea is that students are more likely to be interested in what they are learning, more motivated to learn new concepts and skills… if what they are learning mirrors real-life contexts… and addresses topics that are relevant and applicable to their lives outside of school”. (The Glossary of Education Reform, n.d.)

Methodology

Narrative approach (Students’ work, reflection and questionnaire)

Narrative inquiry is a form of qualitative research in which the stories themselves become the raw data (Schmidt-Jones, 2014).

Prior to the assignment, students have covered the following:

• Malay music rhythms

• Chords I, IV, V and VI on guitar

• Elements of a pop song: chords, bass, drums, melody

• Keyboard skills on iPad (Due to Safe Management Measures (SMM). Initially school iPad, then their personal learning device (PLD)

Curriculum Assignment

 Online keyboard course from: littlekidsrock.org

• Two arrangements using iPad

 iPad: record the chords to Glory using the virtual keyboard, record a drumbeat using the “virtual drums”

 iPad arrangement of Don’t Let Me Down (The Chainsmokers): Virtual/Smart instruments (This was eight bars of the verse only although one or two extra keen students did the chorus as well.)

Instructions:

Sample

music to ﬁnish your commercial. Use the fade feature, if desired.

6. Add a background track(s) below the text track with its volume lower than the text track.

7. Adjust all volumes and add effects for each track and title/save your work. Remember, sometimes less is more! Most important is the clarity of your spoken text.

Fig 1: Instructions for students

• The first assignment was an Assessment for Learning (AfL) task for a 30-second advertisement (Fig 1). Students were taught how to record voice on the iPad and “loops”

were introduced for the first time as an option for students to use.

• Used the “I do/we do/you do” strategy.

• “I do” video was uploaded for students’ reference.

Students’ Work

Personal Reflections about AfL

• Students’ work tended to be quite derivative in theme, taking their inspiration directly from “I do”. I was concerned initially that this would also happen for the main assignment so I decided to avoid doing “I do” for the whole class. For students in need of

assistance, I adopted the approach of peer tutoring or individual consultation as much as possible.

• Students composed using Virtual and Smart instruments and were using “loops”. It seemed like they were ready for inquiry learning.

Authentic Learning Task

a. Students were to assume the role of a jingle and soundtrack composer to choose one out of 10 different advertisement jobs and create a soundtrack.

Fig 2: Examples of assignments

“Strength Bar” 1A2

“Green Tea” 1E3

b. Students were to return with their report and a checklist was given to them to assist them with the task.

Fig 5: Two examples of students’ work for “History Alive” Click here to listen

Click here to listen Click here to listen

Post-Survey Questions

“I had acquired enough skill using GarageBand to complete the Term 3 assignment.”

Fig 3: Example of a student’s work – “Sunrise Cruises”

Fig 4: Second example of student’s work – “Sunrise Cruises”

“Did you like that you were able to choose from different options of ‘job assignments’?”

No, I found it confusing

Comments from Students

• Interest/Inspiration

“Why did you choose the ‘job assignment’ you completed?”

All 10 job assignments were chosen by at least one student. “Sunrise Cruises” was by far the most popular.

Something students related to/found interesting

(E.g. “I chose what my friend was doing”, “I did what the teacher suggested”*)

*For students who were struggling, I steered them towards the assignment for which I had given an example.

It is because I like elevator music and I can picture what type of music people want to hear in the glass elevator. It also helps me become creative in composing my own music.

Because I really liked having a scene of being in a glass elevator and seeing the sunset and the sea while listening to a mix of classical music, Chinese and Japanese instruments. It is very nice.

I got an idea of what it would sound like immediately when I was reading the job assignments.

I found that topic to have the most variety of genre of music and it was something I had many ideas on.

Because it was easy for me to understand since I've heard music in science museum so I know the statistics of the melody, bass, etc.

• Ease

Cuz it was easier than most others and I could do it on my own.

I chose this assignment as it is very easy since my music teacher guided my class through. In GarageBand, I was also able to use this math related topic.

Sunrise cruises seemed to be ‘easiest’ and you also said that sunrise cruises was getting good ‘responses’.

I find it more suitable for me and easier to understand.

I thought it is a lot easier than the rest of the choices.

Conclusion

“I got an idea of what it would sound like immediately when I was reading the job assignments.”

– A comment from a student.

• Providing a “real-word connection” can help spark ideas and motivate.

 Students are more engaged and interested in a subject if it is clear how the information they are learning is relevant to the world around them.

• Pleasantly surprised by the creative use of structure and timbre. High-progress students were able to extend themselves.

 Empower students to follow their own interests.

 Where possible, building flexibility into the course, such as providing several topic options or methods to solve a problem, gives students a sense of control.

• Low-progress or low-motivation students were given sufficient just-in-time scaffolding by both teacher and peers. Students in danger of not meeting the deadline were referred to their peers for support.

 As the deadline was looming it became clear to me through general observation and some consultation sessions during class that there was a small number of students who were not going to be able to submit the assignment on time. Fortunately, I had a small number of students who finished before the

Challenges

• Some students just want to be told what to do.

• For some students the priority seems to be to finish the assignment and hence they take the quickest/easiest solution. deadline and I was able to enlist their help to tutor the low-progress students or simply act as a “cheerleader” to help them stay on task and complete it. Some students needed to be shown ideas and techniques, others needed prompting which I feel is always more impactful when it comes from peers rather than the teacher.

Moving Forward

 Many real-world problems are solved in teams. By constructing an activity that includes this aspect, students have the chance to build their communication skills.

References

• Modify my Scheme of Work to be all “authentic learning experiences”

• Continue to explore what motivates my students

In facilitating authentic learning, perhaps a holistic approach to scaffolding is to have a focus to motivate students and not just scaffolding that targets their skills.

• Harvard College. (2021). Make real world connections to course material https://ablconnect.harvard.edu/make-real-world-connections-course-material

• Schmidt-Jones, C. (2014). Music Inquiry https://www.e-booksdirectory.com/details.php?ebook=11788

• The Glossary of Education Reform. (n.d.). Authentic learning https://www.edglossary.org/authentic-learning/

Becos I copy teacher.

Differentiated Instruction

New Possibilities in Differentiating Instruction to Cater for Diverse Learners

220

Athena Choo shares insights on the application of the differentiated instruction approach in the ukulele curriculum based on differentiation of content, product and process by student readiness.

230

Elena Thein explores the use of differentiated instruction and other ICT tools to help diverse learners learn within their Zone of Proximal Development in her guitar curriculum.

246

Jeremy Lim espouses the use of differentiated instruction in his keyboard module, with various challenges to keep students motivated and engaged.

Differentiated Instruction in a Ukulele Module

Athena

Choo

Xingnan

Primary School

Introduction and Background

• Primary 5 students (two classes of 40)

• Students learn to play the ukulele from Primary 5 Term 3 2021 onwards

• School provided students with the ukulele to learn in class

• Students of mixed abilities

• A simple questionnaire was conducted to find out students’ understanding and skills playing the ukulele

• As it is common practice in our school to follow up with our classes, this project will last till 2022. However, there were many disruptions during this whole period

Inquiry Study Topic & Research Question

Inquiry study topic

To investigate whether different intervention provided (differentiated instructions) for a mixedability class can help students to progress from their current achievement band to the next band e.g. Beginning to Advancing, Advancing to Deepening.

Research question

How can differentiating content, process, product and learning environment help students of different abilities in a class learn?

Literature Review

Based on the Tomlinson and Moon (2013) differentiation model, differentiation is the teacher’s response to students’ needs which is guided by the mindset and general principles of differentiation as shown in Fig 1.

Differentiation approach

Fig 2 shows the differentiation approach based on Tomlinson’s theory on differentiated instruction.

Designing the Ukulele Module Using the Differentiated Instruction Approach

Using the differentiation approach as a guide, I designed the ukulele module accordingly as shown in Fig 3.

Apart from differentiating the content, product, process and learning environment based on students’ readiness, I differentiated the process according to the learning profiles of my students in the classes.

3: Ukulele module differentiated by content, product, process and learning environment according to students’ readiness

Content Students will learn a few more chords – Dm, Em, D – and different strumming patterns

Process

Students will be more self-directed – given a ukulele chord chart

Product Songs with different chord change and use of different strumming patterns

Learning Environment

Self-directed

Students will learn the chords in P5 (C, G, Am, F) and one new strumming pattern

Learn based on the pace of the class. Check on their progress based on the punch card

Simple strumming pattern and songs that we will use in class

Students will focus on the chords in P5 (C, G, Am, F)

Adding colour-coded signs for the chords (to allow them to remember where to place their fingers)

Songs with the specific chords but frequency of the change of chord is lower

progress Small clinic for students

Fig 1: Differentiation model

& Moon, 2013)

Fig 2: Differentiation approach (Tomlinson, 2013)

Fig

Readiness Learning Profile Interests based on

Learning Environment Tomlinson s Differentiation

Lesson 1 & 2

Students were taught how to:

• Hold the ukulele

• Strum the down pattern on the ukulele

• Play the C and Am chords

Teacher’s observations over Lesson 1 & 2

Posture Motivation Skills Fingering

Are students able to hold the ukulele in the correct posture?

Are students motivated to learn the ukulele?

Fig 4: Areas observed as students learnt how to play the ukulele

• Due to the mixed abilities of students, different students demonstrated different progress in learning

• Majority were able to hold the ukulele with correct posture, were motivated, able to play and remember the C and Am chords

Which students will need extra help? Which students can be pushed further?

Are students able to remember the fingering of the chords taught?

• Three students were able to proceed to learn chords beyond the C and Am chords

 They asked to learn other chords apart from the two chords learnt

 Highly motivated

• Four students needed close guidance when learning how to play the ukulele

 One due to lack of motivation

 Three had slight learning difficulties

Differentiating content

Based on my observations in lessons 1 and 2, students were grouped based on three readiness levels:

• Do – low readiness

• Re – middle readiness

• Mi – high readiness

Readiness levels Content differentiation

Low readiness – Do group (Yellow

Middle readiness – Re group (Pink

readiness – Mi group

• Image of G chord fingering provided

• Simple strumming pattern

• No image of G chord fingering – students should remember the fingering

• Simple strumming pattern

• Task requires students to try changing chords between C-G-Am-F

• Different strumming pattern (D-DU-D-D)

Individual task cards were created for students in each group as shown in Fig 5.

Click here to view

Differentiating process

• To facilitate learning of chords for visual learners by colour-coding the strings (as shown in Fig 6)

Fig 5: Individual task cards

card)

High

(Blue card)

Fig 6: Colour-coding strings

Differentiating product

• Different groups, grouped based on readiness, performed different songs

• Songs selected were differentiated according to readiness levels of students

• Students used the iPad to scan QR codes (as shown in Fig 7) for songs

 Each group was preassigned a song to practise based on their readiness level

 Each QR code links to a YouTube play-a-long video

Ukulele punch card

• Students received one punch card each (as shown in Fig 8)

• Each time they completed a task, they would receive a stamp on the completed task (Fig 9)

Pre- and Post-Module Survey

Questions

1. Do you have a ukulele at home?

2. What chords are you able to play on the ukulele?

3. On a scale of 1 to 5, how excited are you to learn how to play the ukulele? 1 being least excited, 5 being most excited.

4. On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you that you will be able to play at least four chords on the ukulele? 1 being least confident, 5 being most confident.

5. What are some songs you wish to learn how to play on the ukulele?

Purpose (To gain a better understanding of…)

Students’ learning environment

Students’ prior knowledge

Students’ motivation level

Students’ confidence level

Students’ interest

Pre- and Post-Module Survey Results

Pre-Survey

1. Do you own a ukulele at home?

Post-Survey

1. Do you own a ukulele at home?

Based on Fig 10, the majority of the students across both classes do not have a ukulele at home.

11: Summary of students’ ukulele ownership in post-survey

Based on Fig 11, there was an increase in the ownership of ukuleles.

Fig 7: Songs for performance differentiated according to students’ readiness

Fig 8: Ukulele punch card

Fig 9: Partially stamped ukulele punch card

Fig 10: Summary of students’ ukulele ownership

Fig

Pre-Survey

2. What chords are you able to play on the ukulele?

12: Summary of students’

As shown in Fig 12, most students did not have a ukulele at home, so they did not know how to play the ukulele and would not know how to play any chords. For students who owned a ukulele, they were able to play a range of chords consisting of C, A minor, F, G, E minor and D minor chords.

Post-Survey

2. What chords are you able to play on the ukulele?

As shown in Fig 13 because all students went through the ukulele lessons in school, despite not owning a ukulele, they were able to play a range of chords consisting of C, A minor, F, G, E minor and D minor chords.

Pre-Survey

3. On a scale of 1 to 5, how excited are you to learn how to play the ukulele? 1 being least excited, 5 being most excited.

Fig 14: Summary of students’ excitement levels in learning the ukulele

Based on the results shown in Fig 14, most students were excited to learn how to play the ukulele.

Post-Survey

3. On a scale of 1 to 5, how excited are you to learn how to play the ukulele? 1 being least excited, 5 being most excited.

Fig 15: Summary of students’ excitement levels in learning the ukulele

Based on the results shown in Fig 15, most students were still excited to learn how to play the ukulele.

Fig

Pre-Survey

4. On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you that you will be able to play at least four chords on the ukulele? 1 being least confident, 5 being most confident.

Most students indicated that they were fairly confident to very confident in learning how to play as shown in Fig 16.

Post-Survey

4. On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you that you will be able to play at least four chords on the ukulele? 1 being least confident, 5 being most confident.

Most students indicated that they were still fairly confident to very confident in learning how to play as shown in Fig 17.

Pre-Survey

5. What are some songs you wish to learn how to play on the ukulele?

Based on the examples of the songs shared below, most students were interested to learn pop songs, with some also interested in learning how to play K-pop songs on the ukulele.

• Roar

• One Call Away

• Counting Stars

• BTS songs

• K-pop

• Sunflower

• One Day

• Old Town Road

And more...

Teacher’s observation

Observations were made based on the following areas shown in the table below

Areas of observation Observations made

Motivation – Are students motivated to learn the ukulele?

Skills – Are the students able to move up the different readiness levels?

Fingering – Are students able to remember the fingerings of the chords taught?

• Students were very engaged in learning the ukulele at their own pace

• Students in the group motivated and helped each other:

 Helped each other to move up to the next level of tasks (e.g. from Do to Re or from Re to Mi)

 Motivated each other to achieve a stamp in the ukulele punch card

• Students were able to remember the chords taught when they were working in a smaller group

Conclusion

• Positive responses from students – it could be seen that students had been improving in terms of their skill levels and were very motivated to continue learning the ukulele.

• The post-questionnaire findings revealed that through the various differentiated instruction approaches, students were able to remember the fingerings of the chords better. This was also shown through the peer support received when they were working in a smaller group.

References

• Tomlinson, C. A. (Ed.). (2005). Differentiated instruction Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Tomlinson, C. A., & Moon, T. R. (2013). Assessment and student success in a differentiated classroom ASCD.

Fig 16: Summary of students’ confidence levels in learning to play chords on the ukulele

Differentiated Instruction in Guitar Lessons

Elena Thein

Admiralty

Secondary School

Introduction –Background and Context of Research

The students in my class generally do not have formal music training outside of school. I would like to look into improving the effectiveness of teaching guitar to a classroom of diverse learners by implementing differentiated instruction (DI) through ICT.

I am really curious about whether providing DI to students within the class would enable the emerging learners to learn more effectively and also stretch the learning of proficient learners. I used to teach the class as a whole and go around the class to give students specific feedback and suggestions to improve. However, I noticed that students who had prior guitar knowledge were slightly disengaged, whereas students who had no music background struggled with the basics. I found it a challenge to help every student learn at their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as the pace of my students was too diverse. Therefore, I think what would really make a difference is to provide DI for learners of different stages so that every student can learn meaningfully despite the difference in starting point.

Also, I would like to change the way I teach in class. Giving students specific feedback to help them improve was effective to a certain extent, but I believe that this method is definitely not the most ideal as there would be a lot of waiting time for other students when I am attending to one student, and lesson time could have been better spent if there was a platform for them to engage in self-directed learning.

Defining the Issue –Literature Review

While reading through the book How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms by Dr Carol Ann Tomlinson, I came to understand that DI is not individualised instruction.

DI also focuses on meaningful learning – on ensuring all students engage with powerful ideas. This point was important to me, as it showed that differentiation did not mean that I had to craft a customised assignment for every student, which would be very labourintensive and less meaningful due to the instructions being reduced to skill fragments.

Tomlinson (2017) also mentioned that the teacher should have a variety of whole class, small groups and individual activities to develop students’ skills and understandings, as well as to build a sense of community in the group. I have thus designed my lessons based on this principle.

Also, Kanevsky (2011) discusses how the pacing should be tailored according to the readiness levels of students, hence my lessons have also taken this into consideration.

Research Question

How will student learning in my classroom change when I use ICT to provide DI to a classroom of diverse learners so that every student would be able to learn within their Zone of Proximal Development?

• Learning Outcome – Learning of the guitar and musical improvisation

• Process – DI within the classroom

• Target Group – Secondary 2 Express students with diverse music backgrounds

I chose to investigate this learning outcome and process because I think that by changing the method of teaching through DI and ICT, the effectiveness of student learning would improve, which will benefit my students.

I am passionate about helping students learn at their own suitable pace and still be able to stretch proficient students so that every learner is meaningfully engaged and developing their music skills. I also want to improve my teaching strategies and techniques through harnessing ICT to provide my students with DI.

Methodology

• Action research – practitioner investigating her own practice

• Testing of theory (Tomlinson, 2017; Kanevsky, 2011) – whether differentiating through use of ICT is effective in helping students learn at a suitable pace in order to maximise progress of all learners

• Pre-Assessment Google Forms quiz

• Flipped Classroom learning approach through the use of the Student Learning Space (SLS) for asynchronous learning of theory and differentiating according to readiness, interest and learning profile

I started implementing my methodology in Term 2, when I taught the guitar syllabus to my students. Some of my plans were disrupted due to the Home-Based Learning (HBL) during the last two weeks of Term 2.

Curriculum

Project Task: Arrange and perform the verse and chorus of a pop song with at least voice, guitar accompaniment and percussion.

This was the project task that every student needed to achieve by the end of the guitar module. Students were assessed on their ability to fulfil this learning objective and not on the additional skills in the higher tiers.

Table 1 shows the differentiation done on the content, process and product. For the content and project task, students are differentiated into three tiers and have the freedom to move between tiers depending on their readiness level. For their final project, they are allowed to choose a song based on their preference. Students also completed a pre-quiz before the module and were informed of their tier.

Table 1: Overview of DI and tiers on the content, process and product

Content

According to Students’

Readiness

Tier 1:

• Students will be able to read guitar tablature

• Students will be able to strum I, IV, vi and V chords separately

• Students will be able to change from chord I to V to I smoothly

Tier 2:

• Students will be able to read guitar tablature

• Students will be able to strum and pluck I, IV, vi and V chords separately

• Students will be able to change from chord I to IV to V to I smoothly

Tier 3:

• Students will be able to read guitar tablature

• Students will be able to strum and pluck I, IV, vi and V chords separately

• Students will be able to change from chord to chord smoothly for all four chords

Interest

• A variety of song choices are provided for each tier

Learning Profile

• Students will attempt a pre-survey before being divided into the respective tiers (students were informed of their tier, but were given the freedom to move from tier to tier at their own pace)

• Students will learn basic theory and concepts individually through the SLS and classroom learning (DI through ICT on the SLS platform)

Table 1: Overview of DI and tiers on the content, process and product Process

According to Students’

Readiness

• Students will learn the basics of reading guitar tablature, a brief introduction to guitar and how to hold a guitar, before they are given a task at the end of the lesson according to the tier that they are in

Teacher will provide feedback to students based on their playing – in person, and online through commenting on students’ videos (DI through ICT on the SLS platform)

Interest

Learning Profile

• Students will get to choose to work on a song from a given list within their tier based on their musical preference

• Students are allowed to form their own groups based on their tiers

• Students will have blended learning where they are required to digest content alone at home on the SLS before coming to class

• Students will work in pairs to practise together and correct each other by giving critical feedback

• Students will collaborate in groups to rehearse for the final project

• Teacher consolidates key learning points and facilitates discussion as a class based on students’ progress, and areas and ways to improve

Table 1: Overview of DI and tiers on the content, process and product

Product

According to Students’

Readiness

Interest

Learning Profile

Lessons

• Students are given a checklist for success criteria to help them monitor whether they have achieved the learning outcomes through their product presentation

• Students are given customised templates based on their tier to guide them in doing their project (DI through ICT on Google Classroom platform)

Tier 1:

• Students are required to vary the dynamics of their song

Tier 2:

• Students are required to vary the dynamics and strumming pattern

Tier 3:

• Students are required to vary the dynamics and strumming pattern of the song

• Students are required to arrange at least four parts for their song

• Students are allowed to choose which part to focus on for their group project

• Students are allowed to choose a song of their choice

• Students will be given the choice on who to work with for their group project

Here is an overview of the various lessons I have planned for the students. The lessons that are titled “Blended” are meant for students to complete at home through flipped classroom learning. Due to the limited face-to-face lesson time, I wanted students to be able to apply their theory knowledge during lessons instead of going through the theory in school. This has helped students to progress at a much faster pace compared to my previous experience teaching students without using asynchronous learning.

Some rehearsal lessons were omitted as music was not given any time slots during the last two weeks of HBL in Term 2, and students also did not have sufficient practical lessons to keep up with the theory portion. Feedback was provided after each lesson where selected groups of students performed towards the end of the lesson, and the class discussed their performance, such as what went well and what could be improved.

Table 2: Overview of lessons and DI

Lesson Overview of Lesson DI Platform

Lesson 1 (Intro)

The Background

Blended 1 (Basics)

The Basics

• Pre-survey

• History of guitar

• Timbre

• Routines - SLS, F2F

• How to hold a guitar

• Parts of guitar

• String names (relate to prior knowledge on piano)

• Guitar tablature

• Tuning guitar - SLS, GarageBand

Lesson 2 (Practical)

The Beginning

• Quick recap on Blended 1

• Practical: tune guitar, play easy G, C, E, Em

• Backing track: medley of songs

• Teacher to assess based on pre-survey, Blended 1 and Practical to organise students into three tiers based on readiness

• Tier 1: Students will play alternate chords so that they will have more time to change from one chord to the next and keep in tempo

• Tier 2: Students will play all four chords in succession and keep in tempo

• Tier 3: Students with guitar background will play the normal version of the four chords, which requires six strings SLS, F2F

Lesson Overview of Lesson DI Platform

Blended 2 (Theory) Strumming Patterns & Perfect Cadence

• Revise guitar tablature

• I – V – I chord progression using D and A

• Introduce strumming patterns, practise using D and A

• Backing track: medley of songs

• Tier 1: Strum each chord separately. Use either D or A to practise different strumming patterns

• Tier 2: Transit between chords smoothly. Use D to practise different strumming patterns, then use A and practise again

• Tier 3: Pluck the chords and transit smoothly. Use D and A alternately while practising different strumming patterns

SLS, GarageBand

Blended 3 (Theory)

• Pop song structure (form)

• I – vi – IV

– V chord progression using G, Em, C, D

• Backing track: Stand by Me –Ben E. King

Lesson 4 (Practical)

Lesson 3 (Practical)

• Practical: using capo to vary key, aural recognition of perfect cadences, I –IV – V chord progression (D, G, A)

• Use of capo

• Backing track: To Be With You –Mr Big (capo 2)

• A few groups to perform in class

• Class discussion and critical feedback

• Tier 1: Work in groups of three. Each person to take turns to strum D, G or A to keep in tempo with backing track. Peers to check for accuracy

• Tier 2: Work in pairs. Take turns to alternate chords to keep in tempo with backing track. Peer to check for accuracy

• Tier 3: Work individually. To play all three chords smoothly

Blended 4 (Project)

• Practical: play I –vi – IV – V chord progression (G, Em, C, D)

• Backing track: Perfect – Ed Sheeran (capo 1) (sight-reading)

• A few groups to perform in class (musical improvisation and creativity was more visible here)

• Class discussion and critical feedback

• Brief intro to final project

• Tier 1: Strum each chord separately

• Tier 2: Change from one chord to another smoothly for two chords

• Tier 3: Change from one chord to another smoothly for all chords.

Option to pluck

• Tier 1: Work in groups of four. Each person to take turns to strum either G, Em, C or D to keep in tempo with backing track. Peers to check for accuracy

• Tier 2: Work in pairs (most common, peer feedback very effective). Take turns to alternate chords to keep in tempo with backing track. Peer to check for accuracy

• Tier 3: Work individually. To play all four chords smoothly.

Option to pluck

SLS, GarageBand

• Formation of groups to work on project

• Success criteria for each tier given

• Option to choose group

• Option to choose song

• Option to move up a tier if students feel confident

Google

Classroom, F2F

SLS, F2F

Lesson Overview of Lesson DI Platform

Lesson 5–7

(Rehearsal)

Blended 5–7

(Polishing)

• Collaboration in groups

• Targeted feedback

• Updating reflection log (on the SLS)

• Monitor progress

Lesson 8–10 (Performance)

• Option to move up a tier if students feel confident Google Classroom, F2F

• Option to move up a tier if students feel confident Google Classroom

Blended 9–10 (Reflection)

• Class performance

• Class discussion of how music elements were manipulated

• Critical feedback Google Classroom, F2F

• Post-survey

• Reflection, feedback Google Classroom

Key ideas in implementing the guitar module:

• Each F2F lesson might stretch beyond one period as some students needed more time to practise

• The purpose of infusing blended learning for music is to maximise the lesson time used for practical sessions, so that students have more time to practise on the instrument properly instead of only using an iPad

• Tiers were used to cater to advanced learners and also to learners who needed more time to progress.

The SLS blended lessons gave students the option to practise more at home where necessary

• Students were allowed to change tiers if they felt ready to move on to the next tier

• Differentiation was done for content, process and product. However, all students would be assessed according to the task requirement to ensure fairness and that all learners achieve the key learning objectives

The key ideas in the previous section summarises some points when implementing the guitar module. Students felt empowered to progress at their own pace and the SLS blended lessons were very effective in helping students progress faster compared to when I did not use it. Differentiation enabled every learner to be fully engaged for each lesson, and all students were ultimately able to achieve the intended learning objectives thus far.

Research Findings

Data Collection

• Structured interview – towards the end of the guitar module, all participants were asked the questions with same wording and sequence

Interviewees

Six students were selected as interviewees, based on their level of proficiency according to the tiers that they are in (two Proficient, two Developing, two Emerging). I also took into consideration their pre-quiz results and weekly performance and progress in class. I have included the hyperlinks to the videos of the interviews, and also of the interview questions.

• Proficient Learner 1

• Proficient Learner 2

• Developing

• Emerging

• Interview Questions

Click here to view the recordings and interview questions

Fig 1: The SLS lesson sample

Click here to view

Structured Interview Questions and Responses

Question 1

Last year, you learnt how to play the piano, whereby both the theory and practical components were conducted face to face in class.

This year, you learnt how to play the guitar, there were the SLS lessons for you to learn the theory at home and the practical lessons were conducted face to face in class. Which approach do you prefer and why is that so?

From Student Responses:

Proficient Learners Developing Learners Emerging Learners

The SLS lessons about music theory to be done online at home and faceto-face lessons reserved for practical sessions, as students can ask their teacher for immediate assistance.

The SLS lessons also allowed students to learn at a manageable learning pace as they can review the learning material again if necessary.

The SLS lessons about music theory to be done at home and face-to-face lessons reserved for practical sessions due to time constraints.

Learning the theory at home makes students more prepared for practical lessons.

Theory SLS lessons at home and practical lessons in school as not many students own guitars.

No SLS lessons. All lessons to be done face to face as the student feels there will be more guidance by the teacher. Student also mentioned that he had a lack of self-discipline to do the SLS lessons at home.

Question 2

You were given a pre-quiz at the start of the guitar module. After completing the quiz, were you more confident or less confident about learning the guitar? Please explain your answer.

From Student Responses:

Proficient Learners Developing Learners Emerging Learners

A bit less confident but more encouraged to study more to learn.

Did not feel anything as already learnt how to play guitar. Was an easy quiz.

More confident. Helps her identify what she knows and does not know about guitar.

More confident. Managed to answer the questions about basics of guitar.

Question 3

For the practical lessons, there were different levels (or tiers) provided with different levels of difficulty. For example, for Tier 1, you would be required to play each chord accurately. For Tier 2, you would need to be able to change chords smoothly, and for Tier 3, you would need to be able to improvise the strumming pattern and change chords smoothly. Students are allowed to choose the tier that they are comfortable in, and move from one tier to the next when they are ready.

In contrast, there were no tiers provided when you learnt the piano last year, and every student had to be able to accomplish the same learning objective.

To what extent were the different tiers provided helpful in your learning, in terms of your readiness level, effectiveness of helping you learn at your own pace and also your engagement level? Please explain your answer.

From Student Responses:

Proficient Learners Developing Learners Emerging Learners

Helpful. Everyone learns at a different pace. Use of tiers gives students the freedom to learn at own pace. Ensures that they are ready before moving on to next tier.

Helpful. Motivated to progress to next tier. Allows students to push themselves more to challenge themselves to move to next tier. Without tiers, some may not be able to achieve success.

Really helpful as not all of them are fast learners. Can slowly progress to next tier when they are more confident.

Not helpful. Stayed at the first tier as afraid to try something more challenging. Lack of motivation as felt next tier would be too hard for him.

Less confident. Realised that there were so many things that they did not know.

Worried that she would not be able to keep up with the rest.

Question 4

For the guitar assessment, you had to work in groups of four to perform the verse and chorus of a pop song with voice, guitar accompaniment and percussion. In contrast, for your piano assessment last year, you were assessed individually. Do you prefer individual or group assessment? Please explain why.

From Student Responses:

Proficient Learners Developing Learners Emerging Learners

Group assessment. Everyone can work together and ask each other for help and support. Can encourage each other. Improves teamwork skills.

Group assessment. Can help and teach each other. Moral support for each other.

Teamwork skills. More ideas to share.

Group assessment. Can learn from other people. More confident doing with others, more scared doing alone.

Individual assessment. Afraid of making mistakes or that group mate will make mistakes. More reassuring if it’s student’s own mistake instead of someone else’s.

Question 5

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being very unmotivated and 10 being highly motivated, how motivated were you to learn the guitar? Please explain your answer.

From Student Responses:

9/10: Very motivated. No guitar at home so looks forward to music lessons.

10/10: Guitar is interesting. 7/10: Quite motivated. Guitar is a new instrument. Wants to learn how to play it. 7/10: Sense of accomplishment makes him motivated.

5/10: Not very motivated. It was just another instrument. However, became motivated after first lesson as it was enjoyable and wanted to learn with friends.

5/10: Never had any interest. Already knows how to play violin and did not see need to learn other instruments.

Question 6

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being very unchallenged (meaning that the lessons were too easy for you) and 10 being highly challenged (meaning that the lessons were too difficult for you), how challenged were you during the learning of guitar? Please explain your answer.

From Student Responses: From Student Responses:

Proficient Learners Developing Learners Emerging Learners

6/10: Somewhat

challenging. More strings compared to ukulele.

3/10: Not very challenging. Has prior knowledge.

Question 7

7/10: Somewhat challenging. Changing of chords was hard.

4/10: Slightly challenging. No guitar background.

7/10: Very challenging. New things such as strumming and plucking.

7/10: Very challenging. Difficulty reading guitar tablature.

During the guitar module, there was extensive use of the SLS for both learning at home and during lessons.

To what extent were the SLS lessons helpful? Please explain.

From Student Responses: From Student Responses:

Proficient Learners Developing Learners Emerging Learners

Helpful. There is a self-check at the end of each of the SLS lessons for students, and to also reflect on what can be improved or changed. Students can refer to it anytime.

Helpful. Students can redo and revise at own time such as replaying the videos. Need not ask teacher in class so can save time to play the guitar.

Really helpful. Videos were useful as she is a visual learner. Quizzes at the end help her recap.

Not helpful. Low self-discipline to complete the SLS lessons properly. Only slightly helpful as he could refer to it if he forgets. Does not think many people used it that much and just did for the sake of doing it.

Question 8

What did you enjoy most about learning the guitar? Please explain.

From Student Responses:

Proficient Learners Developing Learners Emerging Learners

Learning new chords and songs. Experimenting with different strumming patterns and suitable tempo depending on mood of song.

Question 9

Sense of satisfaction when students are able to succeed to play the song, and it makes them happy.

Playing with friends. Likes the feeling of playing together and will be more motivated and fun.

Enjoyed the placement of the fingers as it is similar to what he saw in movies and it looks fun to change chords.

What did you dislike the most about learning the guitar? Please explain.

From Student Responses:

Proficient Learners Developing Learners Emerging Learners

Nothing much because it is their hobby and passion.

Sometimes switching chords is challenging.

Question 10

Chords. Too many different fingerings. However, became more manageable after more practice.

Dislikes changing chords. Too many things to focus on (chords, lyrics, music). Tedious to read guitar tablature.

If you could redesign this guitar module, what would you do, such as adding, removing or changing something, so that your learning would be more effective?

From Student Responses:

Proficient Learners Developing Learners Emerging Learners

More lessons for music. More effective for learning.

Nothing as it helps him learn effectively.

Submit weekly video recordings online for teachers to track progress, as the teacher may not know the weekly progress of every student. This is to ensure that no one falls behind.

In general, students preferred the learning approach that they had this year compared to last year.

Conclusion

ICT tools are able to support DI to a classroom of diverse learners so that most students were able to learn within their Zone of Proximal Development. Also, DI is useful to a large extent but it may not necessarily make all learners feel included, as seen in the interview results whereby the low confidence of emerging learners results in them

having low motivation, and they were also afraid to try the next tier for fear of failure. Emerging learners may need other methods to encourage and motivate them to progress, for example, providing greater differentiation in terms of choice or learning of theory. In future, I will reconsider the labelling of tiers and think of additional ways to build the confidence of emerging learners, so as to increase their motivation and desire to challenge themselves.

Written graded quiz/ survey at the end to force students to revise. More regular monitoring and feedback from teachers. This is to ensure that students are focused and not slacking or wasting time.

References

• Kanevsky, Lannie. (2011). Deferential differentiation: What types of differentiation do students want?. Gifted Child Quarterly, 55(4), 279-299. https://doi:org/10.1177/0016986211422098

• Tomlinson, C. A. (2017). How to differentiate instruction in academically diverse classrooms. ASCD.

Fig 2: Students learning the guitar

Differentiated Instruction for Keyboard Module

Jeremy Lim Clementi Town Secondary School

Introduction

The inspiration behind my project is the desire to motivate students and to show that learning music can be made simple. Furthermore, to address individual students’ needs, we could teach the prerequisite knowledge to some students, allowing advanced students to move ahead of the class, or even change the content for some students based on their individualised education programmes. Students have different music theory and practical backgrounds. Hence, a standardised manner of approaching the keyboard module will undermine students’ learning and growth.

In Clementi Town Secondary School, the keyboard module is one of the pivotal modules. Having designed and implemented initial versions of the keyboard module for Secondary 1 students, I wondered about the motivation of students in learning the keyboard. Every year, there will be two groups of students walking into my music classroom. The first group of students will be those with no or minimal background in music theory and playing on the keyboard. These students often find learning music a struggle. The other will be those with intermediate to advanced competencies in performing on the piano with modest music theory levels. It is a struggle motivating and engaging

all students at the same time. Hence, I decided on this humble journey of trying out differentiated instruction for students’ learning, engagement and motivation.

Differentiated Instruction (DI)

• Teacher designs and executes lessons based on a thorough understanding of the diverse learning needs of all students

• Ensuring that all students are challenged and can “value-add”.

In DI, we could differentiate by:

• Content

• Process

• Product

• Environment

For this study, I will be focusing on Content and Process

Inquiry Topic

Investigating the effect of adopting differentiated instruction on students’ motivation to learn for the keyboard module

• How do we engage students with different prior knowledge and skills?

Some things to consider:

 Having separate tasks for students

 Motivating them to become mentors

 Tasks that challenge students based on their level of readiness

• What will motivate students to learn in music lessons?

Some things to consider:

 Fun, simple and relatable way of learning

 Friends

 Tasks that appeal and are relevant to students

 Teacher and student dynamics

Methodology

The findings of the study are obtained using quantitative and qualitative approaches. The data is collected through a cross-sectional survey on Google Forms. The survey was administered as a pre- and post-survey for a group of 27 Secondary 1 students.

The survey is designed to collect the following data:

• Demographic data

• Background knowledge and skills acquired on the music discipline

• Personal motivation in learning during music lessons

• Importance of friendship and peer influence in learning during music lessons

• Impact of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in learning

• Preferred style of learning for music lessons

Based on the survey findings, I would then:

• Review the quantitative results from the pre- and post-surveys

• Following this, an analysis of the qualitative data in the post-survey was conducted to find out the students’ views on the lesson.

Student Profile

The research is conducted with 27 students from two Secondary 1 classes from the same house. In this house, the students are from five CCAs – Symphonic Band, Football, Malay Dance, National Civil Defence Cadet Corps (NCDCC), Basketball. The school is on the Full Subject-Based Banding system, where students study these subjects as part of their common curriculum: Music, Art, Food and Consumer Education with Design and Technology.

• In the research group, 14 students are from the Symphonic Band, seven from the NCDCC, two from Malay Dance, three from Football and one student from Basketball.

• The students come from different streams: 15 students from the Express stream, eight from the Normal (Academic) stream, four students from the Normal (Technical) stream.

• 18 students do not have formal music lessons or experience in playing the piano/keyboard outside of school.

• Nine students have experience playing the piano/keyboard with five having ABRSM certifications with at least Grade 2 in performance and theory. Out of this nine, three have stopped learning the piano at different junctures of their upper primary years.

Music Curriculum

Overview

• One term, 10 lessons

• One lesson per week, each lesson is 70 minutes

Differentiated tasks

Students are to complete their Keyboard Challenge Card to get the Keyboard Challenge Badge.

Schedule

Alpha Challenge Beta Challenge

LESSON 1 Reciting and performing rhythms with words

Clearing student’s misconceptions on Traditional American System

Pre-module survey

LESSON 2 Performing simple pieces using rhythms with words and cipher notation (Nursery Rhymes)

Clearing student’s misconceptions on reading notes using alphabetical note names

LESSON 3 The five-finger positions on the keyboard; Performing with sensitivity to tempo and pulse (Ode to Joy; Happy Birthday) The five-finger positions on the keyboard; Performing with sensitivity to tempo and pulse (Ode to Joy; Happy Birthday)

Performing Dyads/Chords to accompany melody (C F G Am)

Accompaniment patterns

LESSON 4 Moving between different five-finger positions and finger over; Duets (Arranged-C version of Canon in D)

LESSON 8

LESSON 5-7 Keyboard Challenge

LESSON 9

LESSON 10

NOTE:

Students who are attempting the Beta Challenge will follow through with the lesson. Additional content is scaffolded to the students during the self-practice time for the students attempting the Alpha Challenge.

Rationale for task

• Students are provided with either the Alpha or Beta version of the Keyboard Challenge Card, according to their prior knowledge of the keyboard. Alpha challenge has activities pitched for students with minimal or no experience in playing the piano or keyboard, while Beta Challenge caters to students with some experience in playing the piano or keyboard.

• The Keyboard Challenge Card provides tasks of a different nature. Students engage in their Individual Performance Task, Duet Playing, Singing, Dancing.

• The purpose of having the Keyboard Challenge Card is to inject fun into learning through encouraging peer learning and interaction.

• Teachers gather evidence of the students’ learning through assessing the recorded performance of the best individual piece for the task students select from their Keyboard Challenge Card.

Resources

A few resources were designed to facilitate learning:

• The first materials used for lessons 1 and 2 were the Rhythmic Vocalisation Help Sheet, Rhythm Practice 1 and the Rhythmic Vocalisation Assessment. These materials were used to introduce students to recognise and learn rhythms through words. These materials were constantly used throughout the keyboard module as reference materials.

• The second resource was the Nursery Rhymes Challenge which introduced students to the layout of the keyboard and recognising notation using cipher notation. The purpose of packaging the lesson with the theme of Nursery Rhymes is to leverage on their familiarity. Students will find it easier to aurally relate to the use of the rhythms and notation because of the Nursery Rhymes.

• The third resource was the Keyboard Challenge Package and the Keyboard Challenge Card (Alpha and Beta versions). In the Keyboard Challenge Package, a variety of pieces ranging from the Pop, Rock and Classical genres were provided.

 The pieces were arranged according to Levels 1, 2 and 3 in order of increasing difficulty. Students who had no prior background would have their challenges catered to Level 1 and 2 (Alpha Challenge).

 For students who had formal lessons in Piano, they would attempt Level 2 and Level 3 pieces.

 Students would use the Keyboard Challenge Card to clear their challenges to achieve 20 stars. Every challenge was arranged according to increasing difficulty. The difficulty level would correlate with the number of stars to be achieved. Upon completion, they would receive a Keyboard Challenge Badge.

Keyboard Challenge Package Resources

Click here to view

Levels and Pieces

Level 1 (Alpha only)

• Pieces: Ode to Joy, Happy Birthday, Chan Mali Chan, Di Tanjong Katong

• Selection Criteria for Level 1 pieces:

 Simplicity and relatability

 Keep within an octave

 Students able to experience small successes

 Chords and accompaniment to be kept easy for Beta to perform with Alpha

Click here to view

Level 2 (Alpha and Beta)

• Pieces: Canon in D (Duet), Can’t Stop the Feeling, Grenade, High Hopes, Senorita

• Selection Criteria for Level 2 pieces:

 Increasing difficulty

 Relatability (Pop)

 Challenges Alpha and reinforcing fundamentals for Beta

 Beta to perform both parts

 Rhythms are not overly “complex”

 Chords and accompaniment to be kept easy for Beta to perform with Alpha

Fig 1: Alpha and Beta Challenge Cards

Fig 2: Example of Level 1 Piece, Ode to Joy

Fig 3: Example of Level 2 Piece, Canon in D

Level 3 (Beta only)

• Pieces: Gelang Sipaku Gelang, Home, How Far I’ll Go, Singapore Town, Senorita

• Selection Criteria for Level 3 pieces:

 Increasing difficulty

 Relatability (Pop)

 Keep within an octave

 Challenges Beta

 Beta to perform both parts

 Rhythms are not overly “complex”

 Chords and accompaniment to be kept easy for Beta

Target Setting

As the students cleared their Keyboard Challenge, they could clear their keyboard assessment at the same time, based on what piece they had chosen to perform.

I will also give students additional bonus points, based on their effort, attentiveness and attitude during the module.

Fig 5: Target Setting Sheet, included in the package for students to set their targets

Fig 6: Assessment Rubrics

Fig 7: Additional rewards and bonus points

Fig 4: Example of Level 3 Piece Gelang Sipaku Gelang

Analysis of Findings

Lessons

Section 1: Views on Music Lessons (Motivation Questions)

Section 2: Views on Learning during Music Lessons (DI Questions)

Preference and impact of routines

2.7 I learn well when the teacher sets rules and expectations for us to follow.

2.8 I learn well when the teacher adjusts the groupings of friends that I am in based on my progress of learning.

Importance of target setting

2.9 I learn well when I know what I am expected to achieve.

Appreciation for additional help 2.10 I learn well when I get additional help from my peers and teachers when I need it.

2.11 I learn well when I get opportunities to think and talk about the ways I learn.

Assessment preference and impact

2.12 I learn well when I get to self-assess my progress.

2.13 I learn well when I am taught in a variety of ways and I can choose from them for my own learning.

2.14 I learn well when I am able to get feedback about my performance in class.

Pre-Survey 4.15

Post-Survey 4.07

Pre-Survey 3.96

Post-Survey 4.16

Pre-Survey 4.03

Post-Survey 4.19

Pre-Survey 4.00 Post-Survey 3.89

Pre-Survey 4.00

Post-Survey 3.89

Pre-Survey 3.81

Post-Survey 4.10

Pre-Survey 4.00 Post-Survey 4.07

Pre-Survey 4.04

Observation of Students’ Motivation

With lessons designed with differentiated instruction, the following was observed:

• Improved Ratings:

 Students enjoyed the music lessons more, were willing to work hard for themselves and their friends to do well in the musical assignments (1.1-1.4).

 There was also a desire to accomplish more during music lessons (1.5).

 Students noted that they liked challenges, which garner interest in music lessons (1.9).

 Extrinsic rewards encouraged them to want to be better (1.10).

• Decreased Ratings:

 Students were hesitant to put in additional effort to improve during music lessons (1.6 -1.7).

 Students prefer to do individual work during music lessons (1.8).

 Extrinsic rewards such as praise do not motivate students as much as tangible extrinsic rewards (1.11).

 The freedom of choice in terms of providing multiple methods to learn and the selection of learning materials appealed to students in their learning (2.4, 2.16, 2.17).

 Students valued the fact that learning groups were changeable based on their learning progress (2.8).

 Having a target for them to achieve (2.9).

 Students liked that lessons were conducted in different ways and had different sets of materials for them to learn (2.13, 2.16, 2.17, 2.18).

• Decreased Ratings:

 Students were reserved in terms of allowing them the freedom in how they learn (2.3).

 Students were reserved in terms of getting additional help from peers and teachers (2.10).

 Students seemed to express that it was not crucial to be able to make decisions on whether they would learn alone, in pairs or in groups (2.5).

of differentiated learning

4.07 2.15 I learn well when I can discuss with my teachers how the marks will be awarded.

I learn well when I am given only one way to learn.

3.78

Observations of Students’ Reactions to Lessons Based on Differentiated Instruction

• Improved Ratings:

 Students appreciated that lessons were catered to their learning needs (2.1) and that teachers provided individualised attention (2.2) to help them learn.

Observations of Students’ Appreciation for Routines

• Neutral Ratings:

 With the near percentage, students seemed to be consistent in their views about having their teachers set rules and routines for lessons (2.7).

Observations of Students’ Appreciation for Assessment Methods

• Improved Ratings:

 Students appreciated having the space to self-assess (2.12), which allowed them to learn better.

• Decreased Ratings:

 Students were sceptical in terms of giving them time and opportunities to think about how they can improve (2.11).

 Students were neutral in terms of having the opportunity to discuss with teachers how marks were awarded (2.15).

Discussion on Findings

Theme: Motivation in Learning

Students responded well to the Keyboard Challenge Badge for their achievements and learning. This could be seen from the lessons provided for the students to complete their Keyboard Challenge Cards. Most students seemed to be engrossed in getting their 20 stars. There was also an observation that the students loved working in pairs and in teams to attempt the challenges. It was evident that students were using the time outside of music lessons to accomplish the challenges. Songs from the Keyboard Challenge could be heard practised on the pianos that were in school. The varied nature of challenges and their increasing difficulty level brings excitement to the lessons.

Although pair and group work were appealing to students, some students preferred working alone for music lessons and to achieve the challenges. Students were allowed to submit their challenges in either one of these ways:

1. Recording their challenge on WhatsApp and sending it over

2. Real-life performance during music lessons

According to the findings, praise from teachers and friends was perceived in diverse ways in terms of motivating them.

Theme: Impact of Differentiated Instruction

Students preferred having the freedom to decide on the songs that they could use to accomplish the challenges. Students were given 20 challenges with different songs being offered to them. In addition, students were given a bonus challenge, which they could propose for the teacher’s approval. This bonus was worth five stars – a quarter of what they had to achieve to get the Keyboard Challenge Badge.

Freedom was a central theme for lessons as students had the space to practise individually and as a pair during lessons. In the lessons designated for the pursuit of the stars for the Keyboard Challenge, students had the chance to work on the challenges as a team with the teacher serving as a facilitator of learning. Assessment for the module was incorporated into their Keyboard Challenge. Students could choose their best rendition of one of the pieces as the piece for assessment. Those attempting the Alpha and Beta challenges had the chance to work together as there were similar challenges that related to their learning tasks.

Student Learning was optimised as students had learning catered according to their prior knowledge and progress in learning. Advanced students, who had formal lessons in piano and theory, appreciated the opportunity to revise their skills and gain knowledge that was different from what they had learnt through their formal music lessons. They felt that it was easier to relate to what they had

learnt about rhythms and notation. This was done through “rhythms with words” and “cipher notation”.

The Alpha and Beta challenges were appreciated by students as they allowed students to learn and progress to the next level. There was a conscientious effort during lessons to constantly enthuse students in their learning by:

1. Catering to visual and auditory learners through PowerPoint slides, listening to examples performed live, getting students to perform short passages by listening. Kinesthetic learning is present throughout, due to the nature of the module.

2. Varied forms of practice: Individual practice, different strategies to facilitate pair practice (Left-Right-Front-Back Pair Practice, Pair A and B Practice, Column and Row Challenge, etc.)

3. Speed practice (Time Limit Practice)

4. Inter CCA challenge

The advanced students had to “valueadd” and were given a different set of challenges. Furthermore, they were also provided with opportunities in class to explore left-hand accompaniment patterns and to perform them during the wholeclass practice.

However, students seemed to want structure in terms of how individual, pair and team work were done and were reserved in seeking help from their peers and the teacher. This was seen as some students might belong to certain cliques and they might be left out when freedom was provided for them to pair up on their own. There were also reservations about asking for help. Based on observation, this was because they were concerned that they will trouble the teacher when he is

already fully engaged by other students in class. Some were also afraid that they might look bad for not knowing in front of their teacher or peers.

Theme: Routines and Assessment

Students appreciated the setting of class and learning routines by the teachers. This was necessary for music lessons as there was a risk of “chaos” due to the nature of the lessons. Therefore, routines will turn chaos into organised chaos that is conducive for learning. “Organised noise” is conducive for learning.

Students got the space to self-assess their progress mainly through their pursuit of the Keyboard Challenge. Many students voiced out their challenges when they did their self-practice. From there, individualised attention was provided to help them learn.

Students preferred solutions to be provided to them rather than to think of ways to overcome their challenges based on what they know. This might be the prevalent learning culture.

Conclusion and Implications to Pedagogy

1. The secret to getting students motivated and interested in lessons lies in the design of lessons

The design of the keyboard module was based on the following objectives that I wanted to meet. Lessons had to be:

• Student-centred and fun

• Simple for students to understand

• Concepts to be introduced in a relatable way

• Packaged into a challenge

• Value-added and challenge students with or without a keyboard background

With differentiated instruction as the pedagogical basis for the design of lessons, these objectives were met. However, as a sceptical person, I wondered whether students worked for the Keyboard Challenge Badge or because of their desire to learn music.

Based on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Eggen & Kauchak, 2013, p. 337339), learners are driven by the desire to continually grow and reach fulfilment. SDT suggests that to promote intrinsic motivation in students, these human needs have to be fulfilled:

• Competence

• Relatedness

• Autonomy

Although the “fruits” of relatedness and autonomy can be seen from the research, there is a high risk that students are more motivated to reach performance goals than to achieve mastery. This learning is pragmatic. I have also seen students getting discouraged because they found it difficult to clear challenges and they found it challenging even after seeking help. For these students, developing a growth mindset is crucial as it encourages students to relate their success to their effort. Therefore, they will dare to seek challenges and face failures.

2. The fun starts with a positive teacher-student, student-student learning environment

A positive classroom culture grounded by mutually agreed values and routines helps create a conducive learning environment. This is achieved by setting strict routines at the start of the academic year. It sets the tone for lessons for the entire year.

Students appreciate teachers being firm in setting routines and conditioning them.

It is contrary to the belief that students like mild teachers. Once routines are fixed and students are conditioned to them, the classroom will be a very fun place to be in as everyone is aware of their expected learning behaviour.

3. Harnessing the affordances of ICT

Since the national initiative is to own a personal learning device, and after reflecting on the keyboard module, there are plans to allow some form of flipped learning for the more advanced students who have had keyboard lessons. This allows these students to be stretched further instead of having to go through the same foundational lessons as the students without keyboard background. It was observed that some of the students were not engaged during the first few lessons because it was a repetitive lesson of recalling what they already knew.

4. Controlled freedom is the way to go for lessons

Students like autonomy in their learning. I will term it as “controlled” freedom as they tend to underestimate the importance of the fundamental knowledge and skills that they must have. It is a challenge to convince them. Some students prefer a haphazard learning process whereby they deal with the challenges as they meet them. However, it is greatly encouraged to allow students to choose the tasks that they are supposed to attempt to demonstrate their learning.

5. Engaging digital natives

Through this keyboard module, different strategies were experimented with to ensure that learning activities are structured into chunks. For controlled practice, students were allowed to experience a variety of short learning

activities individually, in pairs or in groups. This is a consideration due to the profile of students who prefer clear, concise instructions and scaffolding. This helps in keeping them refreshed and eager to learn.

6. Transition to formal musical concepts

Based on the keyboard module, students learn about rhythms, notation and practical musicianship on the keyboard. Lessons are kept very simple using words and numbers to introduce the concepts to them. This meant that students could quickly grasp the concepts and start playing on the keyboard. Formal music concepts must be introduced deliberately to ensure that students learn about music elements such as tempo, notation, rhythmic value, time signature, expression, etc.

7.

Problem-based

learning for advanced students

To challenge students who have a prior keyboard background, it is possible to provide them with an authentic performing task to challenge them. They could be given a task in which they will have to form groups of three or four to prepare for a class or school-based performance based on the Pop genre. From there, the teacher could provide resources to scaffold them on knowledge and skills such as the reading of lead sheets, performance of accompaniment patterns and performing the Cajon Pop patterns. Teachers will come in as facilitators of learning to answer their queries on their tasks. In this sense, there is a problem-based dimension which encourages students to be more self-directed in learning.

Special Learning Needs and Differentiated Instruction

New Possibilities to Differentiate Learning That Also Cater for Special Learners

278

Chen Limin, Quah Hui Ling and Anna Chen

Jessica Chaw shares insights on the application of the ecological approach and Universal Design for Learning in accommodating students with special educational needs. 264

investigate the effectiveness of their tiered assignments in differentiated instruction in supporting students of varied learning needs including special learners at different levels in different schools.

Using Tiered Assignments in Differentiated Music Classrooms

Chen Limin

Maha Bodhi School

Quah Hui Ling Northshore Primary School

Anna Chen Rosyth School

Introduction –Background

There is a growing emphasis on applying “differentiated instruction” in our lesson planning to address the needs of academically diverse learners in our classrooms. Hence, to support our students’ learning needs, we are investigating the use of differentiated instruction, and more specifically the use of tiered assignments, in music classrooms.

Context – Profile of Students

We have come to recognise that the learners in our music classrooms come from different SES profiles, attend different preschools, have different exposure and

therefore have very different levels of readiness and needs in the classrooms.

To have the same academic goals set for each of them is highly challenging and impractical. In recent years, we have had a growing number of students with varied learning needs whom we have unanimously found challenging to engage to the fullest in our music classrooms. We also found that many fellow educators are facing similar challenges and hence we decided to investigate how the use of tiered assignments will work in engaging students of different learning needs. We conducted the research across three schools and we observed one student each from our classes. Here are the backgrounds of the students involved in the research.

Student A

Students involved in the Research

Primary 1

• No formal music instrumental lesson outside school

• Suspected to be experiencing sensory issues

• Episodes of meltdown in other subject lessons Mixedability class

Primary 2

• No formal music instrumental lesson outside school

• Constant restlessness

• Easily frustrated

Student B

• Conflicts with classmates

Primary 3

• No formal music instrumental lesson outside school

• Diagnosed with ADHD at beginning of 2021

• Fidgety and restless

Student C

Mixedability class

Research Question and Topic

How do students of perceived special learning needs respond to tiered activities in different learning experiences?

We hope to look into how we can help students move from one tier to another, so that they are able to achieve the music objectives set out for them.

Literature Review

Tomlinson (2017) describes differentiated instruction (DI) as a teacher’s planned and adaptive response to meet the diverse learning needs of all students. This is in the hope of maximising our students’ progress towards achieving the planned

learning outcomes. To achieve it, multiple pathways or strategies should be used in teaching and learning so that our students of different abilities, interests and learning profiles get to experience equally appropriate ways to learn.

Fig 1: Background of students involved in research

Tiered assignment is a form of differentiation that allows each student to excel at their own level of readiness while focusing on the same essential understandings. This also means that tiered assignment allows students to work in their own zones of proximal development (ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978).

ZPD is the “sweet spot” between what our students can do and cannot do, the magical place where learning occurs most effectively. Vygotsky’s (1978) research suggests that we should offer learning challenges that suit each student’s readiness level in order to create the optimal conditions for their learning.

By understanding that our music students’ readiness levels differ in various musical activities, we strive to offer varied challenges or tiered assignments so that our students can feel appropriately challenged.

Methodology

Mixed-methods study with the following data collection:

• Unstructured observations (journaling, reflections)

• Video recordings of lessons

• Video recordings of students’ performances

• Students’ reflections

Curriculum and Implementation

At the Pre-assessment phase, students’ readiness was gauged and they were then divided into two tiers to be assigned appropriately challenged tasks. After presenting their performance to the teacher at the Performance Station, if a student showed more readiness or less

readiness, the teacher then assigned the student a different tiered assignment to suit the student’s readiness.

Tiered Assignment

Lesson Packages and Observations

Here are the three lesson packages for Primary 1, Primary 2 and Primary 3. Each lesson package consists of three to four one-hour lessons. The observations of students in the research are described for each of the lesson packages.

Primary 1 Lesson Package

• Lesson Objectives: Create and perform a two-bar rhythmic phrase (using ta, ti-ti, ta-a, ta rest)

• Prerequisites: Able to perform rhythm notes mentioned above

• Pre-assessment (whole-class activity):

 Teacher recap on the rhythm notes (ta, ti-ti, ta-a, ta rest)

 Students were paired to play a rhythm game (acts as pre-assessment)

 Each pair of students will be given a stack of rhythm cards with the rhythm notes

 Each student takes turns to draw a rhythm card

 The student will perform the rhythm cards by clapping and saying the rhythm notes and sounds Before the pre-assessment, the teacher would have a rough idea of where the students stand in terms of their various tiers. The pre-assessment would then allow the teacher to confirm her assessment of the students, as well as to observe other students which he/she may not be sure of for the tier placement.

After the pre-assessment, the students would be assigned to either Tier 1 tasks (for low readiness students) or Tier 2 tasks (for middle and high readiness students).

• Tier 1 tasks (low readiness)

 Tier 1A task: Teacher would be present to go through the misconceptions and also re-teach the rhythm notes to the students.

 Tier 1B task: Students would be given slips of paper consisting of the rhythm notes. They would choose the rhythm notes and paste them on their task cards to complete their creation. The paper slips are cut to correspond with the length of the rhythm notes.

Students then pick an unpitched instrument to practise their creation.

• Tier 2 tasks (middle/high readiness)

 Tier 2A task: Students would be shown rhythm notes on a piece of paper. They would choose the rhythm notes and draw on their task cards to complete their creation. Students then pick an unpitched instrument to practise their creation.

 Tier 2B task: High readiness students might be assigned a resonator bell. They could pick notes from C, E, G and add a simple melody to their rhythm creation.

showing the steps for implementing tiered assignments in class

Fig 2: Primary 1 Lesson Package flow,

Student A

Student A Observations

Primary 1

• No formal music instrumental lesson outside school

• Suspected to be experiencing sensory issues

• Episodes of meltdown in other subject lessons Mixedability class

Student A Observations

Pre-lesson observation:

• Constantly playing with fingers and shoes

• Needs to be called numerous times to get her attention

• While dealing with music cards or instruments, she would play on her own and would not follow instructions

• Cannot control impulse to touch and feel the things given to her

Lesson observations:

• Was more focused on listening to instructions

• Could attempt the work with more confidence

• Was focused on the challenges on task cards

• Appeared to be happy and feeling accomplished when the teacher signed on the task card

• Was willing to work with her partner and asked her partner for help when needed

• Had a task card to hold which helped with her sensory issues

Post-lesson conversation:

• “I like the task card; it is like a game card to me.”

• “The activities are not too hard.”

• “I know what I need to do. I am happy I can make my own music.”

• “My partner is helpful and can guide me along.”

• “Last time, the notes felt very difficult. Now I understand them more.”

Whole-Class

Post-Package

Feedback

(Primary 1 Lesson Package):

 “I like the card activities, they are fun.”

 “I like to earn the stamps after each part of the lesson.”

 “My partner is very helpful and we work together to earn stickers.”

Primary 2 Lesson Package

• Lesson Objectives (Stage 1 LO2.3): Compose a melodic phrase of at least two bars, based on the C pentatonic scale

• Prerequisites/Prior knowledge: Able to identify and perform the rhythmic notes –crotchet, a pair of quavers and crotchet rest (ta, ti-ti, ta rest)

Fig 3: Student A attempting

Fig 4: Primary 2 Lesson Package flow, showing

• Whole-Class Experience: Learn the song Bow Wow Wow with body percussion, which is later replaced with rhythm sticks

Fig 5: Instruction sheet for Whole-Class Experience –learning Bow Wow Wow

• Pre-assessment: Improvise bar 3 of Bow Wow Wow using pentatonic scales

During the improvisation, the teacher assessed whether students were of lower readiness (Tier 1) or higher readiness (Tier 2).

Fig 6: Instruction sheet for Pre-assessment – improvising on Bow Wow Wow

• Whole-Class Experience (second time): Class composition and discussed elements of good composition

This experience served as a benchmark of the students’ work. The students were then assigned to their respective tiers.

Teacher guides students in composing a tune using C pentatonic notes, based on the rhythm of “Bow Wow Wow”

Fig 7: Instruction sheet for Whole-Class Experience (second time) – class composition

• Tier 1 tasks: Students compose a new melody on C pentatonic scale, to the rhythm of Bow Wow Wow

Fig 8: Instruction sheet for Tier 1 task – melody composition to rhythm of Bow Wow Wow

• Tier 2 tasks: Students compose a new melody on C pentatonic scale, with their own composed eight-beat rhythm

While they were working on their tiered tasks, I walked around the classroom to give feedback on their compositions. After class, I marked and wrote feedback on their composition worksheets. Students who completed their compositions properly would receive a sticker on the top right hand of their worksheets.

• Rehearsal station: Practise their melodic compositions with resonator bars

• Performance station: Performance followed by teacher’s feedback

Fig 9: Instruction sheet for Tier 2 task –composed melody with composed eightbeat rhythm

In the next lesson, the students would either work on the teacher’s feedback or proceed to practise their melodic composition on resonator bars (rehearsal station) or be promoted to compose another melody using the Tier 2 worksheet if they exhibited higher readiness.

In the last lesson, the students performed their compositions individually for the teacher’s feedback (performance station). At any time, if the students showed higher readiness or lower readiness, their tasks could be adjusted to challenge them more appropriately.

Student B Observations

Primary 2

• No formal music instrumental lesson outside school

• Constant restlessness

• Easily frustrated

Student B

• Conflicts with classmates Mixedability class

Student B Observations

Pre-lesson observation:

• Did not follow classroom instructions as promptly as peers and moved slower than others

• Easily discouraged and unmotivated, would sigh and express defeatist statements aloud

• Lacked focus and was easily distracted

• Preferred to work alone, quarrelled easily with classmates and commented that his classmates were the ones creating trouble

• With constant positive reinforcement, he tried his best in musical activities

Lesson observations:

• Still worked slower than his peers but eventually, he was able to complete his work at his own pace

• Transformed from working alone to learning collaboratively

• Improved his composition based on personalised feedback

• Took the initiative and asked for Tier 2 assignment, more motivated and took pride in his work

All in all, I observed better focus, greater motivation and improved relationships with his classmates.

Primary 3 Lesson Package

• Lesson Objectives: Create and perform a two to four bar rhythmic and melodic ostinato

• Prerequisites:

 Understand what an ostinato is

 Understand what a pentatonic scale is

 Able to perform rhythmic notes of ta, ti-ti, ta-a, tika-tika and ta rest

• Whole-Class Experience:

 The class will learn a new song together, understanding the time signature as well as the rhythms used in the song.

 The students will create two-bar ostinatos as a class ta, ti-ti, ta-a, tikatika and ta rest.

 Students will create one-bar melodic ostinato using notes of the pentatonic scale with a given rhythm and play it on the xylophones.

 The class will take turns to perform the rhythmic and melodic ostinato and give feedback on how it worked out. This becomes the exemplar when students eventually work on their ostinato creations later on.

• Tier 1 task: Compose a two-bar rhythmic ostinato, followed by a one-bar melodic ostinato

Student C and his partner completed the Tier 1 task relatively quickly.

• Tier 2 task: Compose a two-bar rhythmic ostinato (with tika-tika rhythm), followed by a two-bar melodic ostinato (with the full range of pentatonic scale notes)

Since Student C and his partner were able to complete the Tier 1 task rather quickly and moved on to practising their rhythmic ostinato with very few mistakes, I decided that they had to be upgraded to the Tier 2 task, adding in tika-tika to their rhythmic ostinato options.

The task cards and the videos showcase the flexible grouping and movement within tiers that is possible in this lesson structure, as experienced by Student C.

Fig 10: Video of wholeclass experience –students performing rhythmic ostinato to the song Great Big House in New Orleans

Fig 11: Student C working with his partner to compose a rhythmic ostinato (Tier 1 task)

Fig 12: Student C and his partner’s task

Mi, La).

Student C

Student C Observations

Primary 3

• No formal music instrumental lesson outside school

• Diagnosed with ADHD at beginning of 2021

• Fidgety and restless Mixedability class

Student C Observations

Pre-lesson observation:

• Restless

• Often distracted by items and people around him

• Unwilling to try individual tasks and relied on others during group work

• Unable to clap to the beat and unable to distinguish ti-ti and tika-tika during Formative Assessment (FA)

Lesson observations:

• On task with his peer

• Clarified with the teacher on rhythm

• Informed the teacher as soon as his pair work was done

Post-lesson conversation:

• “This one I can do.”

• “I want to perform.”

Findings:

• Student C was engaged during the lessons involving task cards.

• He literally “raced” to complete the activities in exchange for the task card.

• By working in pairs of similar readiness, the students worked together to reinforce each other’s understanding of the requirements of the task.

• Since everyone understood the flow of what they were required to do, the whole class was meaningfully occupied with their tiered activities.

Post-activity Survey

(Student C responses)

1. Do you like the task card activities?

 Ans: “Yes, it’s like a game.”

2. How do you know what do you need to do?

 Ans: “There are lines drawn on the cards.”

3. What happens when you don't know what to do?

 Ans: “I ask my partner or somebody before I ask the teacher. I can also remember teacher’s examples.”

4. Can you compose rhythmic and melodic ostinato on your own now?

 Ans: “Yes.”

5. Is there any part of the activity that you think is difficult?

 Ans: “Yes, playing with the music because it is too fast.”

Discussion on Findings

Benefits of tiered assignments:

• Task cards appeared like a game to the students, thus it was motivating and encouraging.

• As students approached the teacher to check on their individual work before

proceeding to the next task, there was individual interaction, and this led to better understanding of the student’s work and thus contributed to better teacher-student dynamics in future lessons.

• Students were able to work at their own pace and readiness level.

• Bite-sized assignments students were more motivated to attempt the musical task because they were more capable of completing the assignment.

• Able to adjust and change the tasks during the tiered assignment to suit students’ readiness.

• Student empowerment – tasks required individual student contribution and students were responsible when working on their task cards.

Concerns with tiered assignments:

• The students would rush through the assignment to achieve the reward. Thus, the teacher would need to remind the students to slow down at times.

• Required more lesson time to achieve the same lesson objectives.

• More time was required for lesson preparation.

Conclusion

These are the benefits of having tiered assignments in a differentiated music classroom:

• Promotes inclusion in the classroom

• Allows for higher student engagement

• Provides psychological benefits of being appropriately challenged

These are our teacher sentiments, after the lesson:

References

• “It is rewarding to see everyone being engaged in class.” (Anna Chen, Rosyth School)

These are our teacher sentiments, after the lesson:

• “It is rewarding to see everyone being engaged in class.” (Anna Chen, Rosyth School)

• “The passion in me comes from the student enjoying musicking and showing confidence in music.” (Quah Hui Ling, Northshore Primary School)

• “It is fulfilling to see how DI develops the joy of learning as well as motivation in music-making among my students.” (Chen Limin, Maha Bodhi School)

• “It is fulfilling to see how DI develops the joy of learning as well as motivation in musicmaking among my students.” (Chen Limin, Maha Bodhi School)

Moving forward, our team will be interested to explore and scaffold more tiered assignment lesson ideas with a different musical focus and different lesson objectives.

Just like the pupa who fought hard to transform into a butterfly, beautiful things happen after we get past a struggle. This struggle is anticipated and scaffolding will allow students to experience the metamorphosis from not knowing to mastery.

• Tomlinson, C.A. (2017). How to differentiate instruction in academically diverse classrooms (3rd ed.). ASCD.

• Tomlinson, C.A., & Moon, T.R. (2013). Differentiation: An overview. In Assessment and student success in a differentiated classroom (pp. 1-16). ASCD. http://www1.ascd.org/publications/books/108028/chapters/ Differentiation@-An-Overview.aspx

• Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

Growing Students Through Inclusive Music Classrooms

Classroom environment (micro-system)

The immediate contexts in which the individual participates and the people in these contexts who are in direct contact with the individual

Introduction

Jessica Chaw Edgefield Primary School

I started on this journey to create inclusive music classrooms in 2018 through an action research project and a Critical Inquiry project in 2019 on differentiated instruction in the mainstream music classroom. Over the years I have seen many success stories and this has motivated me to continue on this journey. In recent years, there has also been an increasing awareness of inclusive education in Singapore.

Literature Review

Inclusive Pedagogy1

Inclusive pedagogy is a student-centred approach to teaching that creates “an inviting and engaging learning environment to all the students with varied backgrounds, learning styles and physical and cognitive abilities in the classroom” (Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, n.d.). Effective practices include applying the Universal Design of Learning, cultivating

an inclusive environment, and fostering a growth mindset. It “improves learning outcomes” when the teacher attends to “student differences and take deliberate steps to ensure that all students feel welcomed and supported in the classroom” (Florian, 2015; Spratt & Florian, 2015, as cited in Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, n.d.).

In this inquiry, I will be highlighting two ideas that have worked for me:

1. Ecological approach and

2. Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

1. Ecological approach2

There are five factors under this approach

1. Peer

2. Physical setting

3. Student

4. Teacher

5. Curriculum & resources

Here in this inquiry, I looked into the immediate context that surrounds the child.

Inclusive Pedagogy, by the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Iowa State University is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0. This work, Inclusive Pedagogy is a derivative of Inclusive Pedagogy developed by University of Oklahoma’s Center for Faculty Excellence (retrieved on September 15, 2019) from http://www.ou.edu/cfe/teaching/inclusivepedagogy, and Inclusive Teaching developed by Dartmouth College’s Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity (retrieved on September 15, 2019 from https://dcal.dartmouth.edu/resources/teaching-learning-foundations/inclusive-teaching 2 https://study.com/academy/lesson/ecological-approach-to-classroom-management.html

School Environment (meso-system)

Influences between members of the microsystems, e.g. school and family relationships

Why use the ecological approach?

• The ecological approach to classroom management is a holistic approach to help students learn and regulate their behaviour.

• It is holistic because it does not just focus on one area, like teaching strategies, but tries to address the entire learning experience of students.

External Environment (exo-system)

External influences on the individual from systems not directly related with or external to the microsystem, e.g. policy and legislation

2. Universal Design for Learning (UDL)3 UDL is a framework to improve and optimise teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. It gives all students an equal opportunity to succeed. It allows teachers to look for different ways to keep students motivated through the use of a variety of teaching methods to remove any barriers to learning. There are three guiding principles in UDL as shown in Fig 1.

Universal Design For Learning

Multiple means of engagement Look for ways to motivate learners and sustain their interest.

Multiple means of representation Offer information in more than one format.

Multiple means of action & expression Give learners more than one way to interact with the material and to show what they know.

https://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Fig 1: Three guiding principles in UDL

Why use the Universal Design for Learning Framework?

Our classrooms are filled with students who have different needs and come from different educational backgrounds. They have different attention spans and interests, different language abilities and different cultural backgrounds.

Strategies for Inclusive Teaching using UDL (Sanger, 2020)

• Proactively learning about your students and their environment

• Signal your confidence in the potential of each student

• Transparency – be explicit about expectations and strategies for success

• Use varied teaching techniques and formats

• Practise inclusive assessment techniques

Case Study 1

• Vary assessment formats

• Don’t let the grade speak for itself –offer direct, constructive feedback

• Recognise possible barriers

• Provide opportunities for do-overs

• Do mid-point checks

• Avoid projecting your professional goals and learning preferences on students

• Represent diversity in syllabuses and course content

• Recognise your power as a teacher to be able to support and protect students with special needs when faced with communication and collaboration skills with peers

In the following case studies, I will share how I used the ecological approach and UDL to engage my students in music lessons.

Mimi & Momo (Diagnosed with hearing impairment)

Hearing loss (also called hearing impairment) “makes it hard to hear or understand sounds. This happens when there is a problem with one or more parts of the ear, the nerves coming from the ears, or the hearing part of the brain”

(The Nemours Foundation, 2021).

Mimi and Momo are diagnosed with hearing impairment. Fig 2 shows the ecological factors for both students. Here I share how I used multiple means of representation where I presented information in more than one format, and in a variety of ways to support their learning.

Teacher Factors

Understanding of the condition

Classroom management when attending to child

Teachers carry the receiver

Student Factors

Born with the condition

Use hearing aids

Responsible (Mimi)

Peer Factors

Gets along well with peers Doesn’t really converse with peers (Momo)

Momo

Momo is a sweet-looking girl. Whenever our eyes met, I could always feel that she was looking for affirmation and affection. I would acknowledge her presence with a smile, hoping my eyes could convey the joy of seeing her as my mouth and nose were masked. At times, I could feel her hesitation and at other times, she was happy to be doing activities with the class.

As Momo wears a hearing aid, the teacher needs to wear the receiver for her to hear what the teacher is saying. However, on most days, she would not have her receiver with her. She would inform me that she had forgotten to bring it or that it was faulty.

Mimi & Momo΄s ecological factors Mimi & Momo’s ecological factors

Environment Factors

Supportive classroom

Seated near teachers in all subjects

Easily distracted by teacher’s instructions for others

Despite me not using the receiver, she was able to hear me with her hearing aid whenever I checked in with her during the lesson.

During music lessons, I would notice that Momo usually needed more time in coping with musical tasks assigned to her. She also needed one-to-one teacher guidance. As with the majority of our children, Momo enjoys playing along with interactive online programmes. However, she needed additional support for her to follow along with the interactive online programme. For example, I noticed that

Curriculum & Resources

Weak listening

Difficulty in coping with far teaching visuals

281

Fig 2: Mimi & Momo’s ecological factors

the whole class was engaged in playing along to the song on the interactive online programme, on the resonator bells, following the notes on the screen. However, I observed that she was not playing along. She was looking left and right, hoping to follow her classmates. I thought, “Momo should be able to see the screen and the instructions given were loud and clear. She should not be having problems.” But as I observed her further, she could not follow the song at all. Quickly, I got Momo to come to the front, placed her resonator bells in front of my laptop and slowed the video down to 0.75 speed. Voila! She was following the song well, hitting the right notes, almost to the beat of the song. She was also focused on the laptop screen and the bells in front of her as shown in Fig 3. By the end of the lesson, she was smiling to herself and I knew she felt good at the moment.

It was not just during music lessons that Momo needed accommodations in her learning. Even in face-to-face or live Zoom lessons in the music room, she needed to be placed nearer to the instructor or the

screen with constant guidance in coping with dance steps or in drama class.

As compared to Mimi, who has the same condition, Momo needed more time and one-to-one teacher guidance. I have tried applying similar accommodations for both girls but they worked very differently for each. It comes back to “every child is different”. I learnt that no child is alike, no one strategy fits all, even if they had the same condition. It depends on the child. There were many times when my strategies were not helping the child at all. I just have to keep on trying, modifying the use of materials or approaches depending on how each child presents himself/herself at each lesson. At the end of the day, a smile is sufficient to know if they were engaged and enjoying the lessons planned for them.

Mimi

As I waited outside Primary 2B classroom, a hearing kit appeared in front of me. Looking down, Mimi was looking at me with a smile, greeting me quietly with her eager eyes. Mimi had been my student since she was in Primary 1. If anyone were to see her in class, you would have thought that she was a normal child, attending lessons just like any one of the children. Mimi had a hearing impairment. She has needed a hearing aid since she was born and during lessons, she would pass the receiver to the teacher. Mimi was the class monitor, continuing her role from Primary 1. She was always responsible, showed initiative and was confident of herself. What impressed me was that she did not let her disability hinder her capability and potential.

Mimi’s disability became more apparent during the musicking parts of the music lessons where her listening skills were needed. She always tried even though she

might not be achieving the best results. During one of the music lessons, the class was learning to play the melody of Kueh Pisang. Before the lesson, I anticipated that she might have a problem playing it on the resonator bells. To be fair to her, the class learnt the melody, playing it note by note under my guidance. From the corner of my eye, I watched how Mimi was coping. She could not cope with the task of watching my demonstration and transferring the learning to her resonator bells. She did not give up though and was trying really hard. You know how it is like when a child is trying so hard in your class but still doesn’t get it? I felt it more because Mimi had always been an angel in my class. When I gave the class some practice time to work on it by themselves, I went to Mimi.

“Mimi, can you show Mrs Lim how you have been practising?” I asked her softly. She played with so much hesitation. I placed a piece of paper with coloured notes that corresponded to the colours of the resonator bells. I guided her as she followed the coloured notes and left her to practise as shown in Fig 4. To allow her some independent practice time, I walked

Case Study 2

Nikki (Diagnosed with autism)

around the class to check on the other students’ progress. As I walked around the music room, I kept watch on her progress. Being a diligent girl, she mastered the song quickly. Once that happened, the whole class played it together. I could see her confidence returning almost immediately. The moment she looked at me with a big smile as the song finished, I knew a difference had been made.

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a condition that “mainly affects an individual’s interest, social communication and social interaction with others” (Ministry of Education Singapore, 2019). The child can be uncomfortable with unexpected changes and new situations, have difficulties with self-control and understanding what appropriate social behaviours are, and display repetitive behaviours such as finger tapping or repetitive speech.

Fig 3: Momo playing along on the resonator bells with the interactive online programme

Fig 4: Mimi playing on the resonator bells with the use of visual aids

Nikki was diagnosed with autism. Fig 5 shows Nikki’s ecological factors. Here I share how I used multiple means of engagement to help Nikki engage with the learning by giving him choices and autonomy, and by incorporating his interest to support his learning.

Teacher Factors

Building rapport

Gaining trust

Understanding of the condition

Classroom management when attending to child

Student Factors

Autistic

Dislikes Chinese lessons

Environment Factors

Loud noises affect him

Dependent on his mood in the Chinese lesson before music lesson

Peer Factors

Low social skills

Likes to do things alone

Chooses certain students to be his friends

Curriculum & Resources

Cannot focus

No eye contact with teacher unless being prompted Low social awareness Activities during lessons cannot have loud noises

Fig 5: Nikki’s ecological factors

The bell rang, signalling the end of the previous lesson. I was already outside class 2A. I would always try to reach the class before the bell rang so that I would be ready for Nikki. Just then, Nikki ran out, past me and towards the main corridor. “Nikki! Nikki! Mrs Lim is here!” I shouted at my runaway boy. He turned and ran towards me.

“Is it music lesson now?” Nikki asked. I nodded. “I hate Chinese! I don’t want to go for Chinese!” he screamed at me. I held his hands firmly and asked him to look at me and assured him that the Chinese lesson was over and we were going for a music lesson. I turned him around and showed him that his friends were all lining up. He shook me off and walked away from

me. As I gathered the rest of the class, I kept watch on Nikki and saw that he was slowing down, waiting for me. I asked him to lead us to the music room and he did so gladly. This time, I was able to calm him before his mood escalated negatively. There were times when I could not handle him and had to call for help from my school’s AED LBS. I preferred not to call them, as I knew that they always had their hands full. There were also times when Nikki was in a perfectly good mood. He would ask me questions about my watch, my bottle and my hair, or anything that interests him.

When we reached the music room, we started the lesson with an action song. I played the song with a drum to keep the

beat and I noticed that Nikki had walked away, using his fingers to press on his ears. As he had walked out of my sight, I stopped the lesson and got everyone else to freeze on the spot (thankfully they thought that I was playing a freezemove game with them). I walked to Nikki and asked him what was loud for him. He pointed to the drum in my hands. I apologised and asked him what I could use as another instrument instead. I showed him a pair of claves and a shape drum. He chose the claves for me. I continued the lesson without much disagreement from him. I knew he was sensitive to loud noise but I thought the hand drum was all right for him. Apparently, this drum did not work for him for this lesson. It could also have been a trigger from the Chinese lesson as he did not like the subject.

With Nikki, it is difficult for me to gauge what would appeal to him or trigger his mood during the lessons. Usually, he would participate in the lessons. He loved music, singing and playing on the instruments. He did not like the resonator bells much.

He found them too noisy. For that one particular lesson where everyone in class was playing on the resonator bells and boomwhackers to an interactive song online, Nikki refused to play on the bells. I gave him one boomwhacker to follow the song and added the second note after seeing that he was able to cope with one. I was definitely surprised when he hummed and sang the song happily and loudly in class. I must say that his classmates have been great at accommodating his strange outbursts at times but in this particular moment, we all enjoyed the accompaniment by him.

It is important to know my students, which is why I use the ecological approach. As I go through the factors surrounding the child, I am forced to learn more about the child which leads to how I want to engage him/her further. The more I understand about the child, the more I find out about the barriers to their learning and think about how I can accommodate my teaching to meet the needs of my learners.

Case Study 3

Bala (Diagnosed with autism and mild ADHD)

Bala has autism and mild ADHD. Fig 6 shows Bala’s ecological factors. Here I share how I used multiple means of action and expression to provide him with multiple ways to interact with the content and to show what he has learnt. I also made accommodations in his assessment, so instead of assessing him on the playing of the chords on the ukulele, he played the chords on the resonator bells.

Teacher Factors

Building rapport

Gaining trust

Needs Bala to repeat and follow instructions with actions

Understanding of the condition

Classroom management when attending to child

Student Factors

Autism with mild ADHD

Born with the condition

Follows the class in activities

Loves to sing

Environment Factors

Loud noises affect him

Needs mother to be with him at all times, especially physical lessons (PE, dance)

Peer Factors

No social skills

Cannot converse with peers

Mimi & Momo΄s ecological factors Bala’s ecological factors

Curriculum & Resources

Cannot focus

No eye contact with teacher unless being prompted Low social awareness

Activities during lessons cannot have loud noises

I shared about Bala in my Critical Inquiry project in 2019 (Chaw, 2020) where he was a student I taught in the Programme for Active Learning lessons. This year, he is in Primary 4 and I am teaching him music. He could not remember me but his mum, who accompanied him at all times in school, did. Throughout the past year, I made it a point to greet her whenever I saw her in school with Bala. Physically, he had grown into a tall and strong-looking boy. I did notice a change in him when I first interacted with him as his music teacher at the beginning of this year.

First, Bala did respond to simple questions and greetings. As with the majority of children with autism, he was still unable to maintain eye contact with me. If I called him by his name, he

would usually answer “Yes” while looking everywhere else but me. But to me, this was definitely a big step up from when I interacted with him two years ago. It showed that his mother had been working very hard with him at home, sending him to therapists and working on his social skills and academic subjects. I realised that his musicality seemed to have grown too. He could express his likes and dislikes regarding what we were doing during lessons.

During one of my music lessons with Bala at the beginning of the year, the students were learning how to play the ukulele. The main objective of that lesson was learning to hold the instrument correctly and strumming the C chord. As the lesson went on, Bala started singing loudly. His

mum just happened to be out of the room then. I decided to leave him alone and was waiting for him to stop. But he went on singing (in an incomprehensible language) even louder and it became a big distraction for the whole class. The other students were turning their heads and some were pressing their fingers on their ears. I stopped teaching and went to Bala.

“Bala, look at me,” I said. Bala looked at me for a split second and looked away. I knew I had his attention. “Bala, stop singing.” I knew that I did not have to say much. I asked the boy sitting next to him, Fandi, to remind Bala to stop singing if he were to start singing again. Throughout the lesson, as his mum did not come back into the music room, Fandi helped to remind Bala, similar to what I had done. At times, Bala would not respond to Fandi and I had to go to him and stop him from singing loudly. After the lesson, I spoke to his mum and realised that it could be his disinterest in the lesson that caused him to act up. In the next lesson, I still passed him the ukulele with stickers to help him with his fingering but he peeled out all the stickers and pasted them on the floor instead. I tried to paste the stickers back but they ended up elsewhere. I was actually laughing at the situation and his mum, who was in the music room, apologised to me. I then gave him the resonator bells instead. It was the same set of resonator bells with stickers which I had pasted to accommodate my students with hearing impairment. Instantly, I could see a change in his demeanour. He liked it. He handled the bells with care. Since I had already printed out the visual aid for him, I took out only the C note for him to play. He

could hit the note together with the class who were playing on the ukulele! Bingo! I was so happy that I had hit the jackpot.

Before the next lesson, I prepared visual aids for Bala to play the melody of You Are My Sunshine together with the class. Everyone started to practise playing the melody on the bells and I went to work with Bala individually to guide him on how to use the visual aid. He did not seem to be listening to me but was able to follow where I pointed for him to hit the notes. After two rounds, I went ahead with what I had planned for the lesson. When it was time for the whole class to play the song together, to my surprise, Bala could play the whole song, albeit not at the right pulse. I was so surprised, or rather shocked! He had never played a complete song on a musical instrument before. At that moment, I could feel my eyes brimming with tears. It was such a touching moment, an affirmative moment, a “I DID IT!’ moment.

As I reflected on that moment, it was most probably a lucky strike on the chosen instrument. He was interested in playing the resonator bells, which was why it worked for him. I spoke to his mum. She was beaming with pride. She did find that her son liked music but not songs with loud drumming sounds. She was also surprised that he could follow and play the song in full too. She shared that there were not many moments like these as he continued to grow and she was very appreciative and grateful at that moment. Truly, I was touched. Touched by the boy who lived in his own world yet letting me into his world through this small connection. Thank you Bala!

Fig 6: Bala’s ecological factors

Case Study 4

Tim (Diagnosed with autism)

Tim was diagnosed with autism. Fig 7 shows Tim’s ecological factors. Here I share how I used multiple means of representation to present information in more than one format and in a variety of ways to support his learning, and multiple means of action and expression to allow him multiple ways to interact with the content and to show what he had learnt.

Teacher Factors

Building rapport

Gaining trust

Needs child to repeat and follow instructions with actions

Understanding of the condition

Classroom management when attending to child

Student Factors

Born with the condition

Follows the class in activities

Loves to sing

Likes being cold

Likes anything Korean

Environment Factors

Loud noises affect him Needs a cold environment

Needs space and time-out

Peer Factors

No social skills

Cannot converse with peers

Some boys in the class tend to make fun of him

Openly states who are the peers he dislikes

Mimi & Momo΄s ecological factors Tim’s ecological factors

The bell rang. Recess was over. I stood in front of the Primary 4 class, looking at them getting ready to walk up to the music room. Most of them were taller than me. I had to walk down the line to ensure that all were ready to leave the canteen. Tim was a bigger boy than the rest. He was walking in small circles. One of his classmates, Billy, was just right behind him. “Billy, go to the front. You are walking with me today,” I said. Billy

and asked him where his money was. He took out a $2 note from his shirt pocket and showed it to me with a smile. “I didn’t give him. Tim didn’t give him. In my pocket.” I smiled and told him that we were going up to the music room. He followed at the back of the line with a boy whom I trusted. As I walked up to the music room, I spoke to Billy, giving him a stern warning that he should not have asked Tim for his money. He nodded and apologised to Tim before we went inside the room.

Curriculum & Resources

Cannot focus

No eye contact with teacher

unless being prompted

Low social awareness

Activities during lessons cannot have loud noises

walked to the front of the line grudgingly. He knew why I told him to do so. I had caught him trying to agitate and poke fun at Tim a few times. Tim, being autistic, would start to feel angry and would not be able to join the lesson after.

Tim walked to me and said, “Billy wants to take my money. Billy wants to take my money.” He paced in front of him. I called his name, got him to look at me

We were going to start on the ukulele module. They were going to learn how to hold the ukulele and play the C chord. I passed a ukulele to Tim. There was a red sticker pasted to indicate to him where he should place his finger on the ukulele. I pasted another red sticker on his fourth finger and told him that they should match as shown in Fig 8. He showed me and it worked. He was strumming with his right hand and was feeling good about himself. I gave him a thumbs up while I walked around the class to check on the others. When I came back to Tim, he was just holding the ukulele as if he was cradling a baby and rocking himself gently. “Tim, show me the C chord.” Tim looked up at me and smiled. I pointed to his finger and the ukulele. I saw that the stickers were no longer where they were supposed to be. I asked Tim for the stickers and he showed me that he had pasted them on the ground under his leg.

I smiled and pasted another one onto the ukulele. Immediately, he removed it. I tried for the last time, telling myself this would be the last try. I held onto his fourth finger and placed it on the string where the sticker was. I told him firmly, “Do not take the sticker away. This will help you play beautiful Korean music.”

I suddenly remembered that he loved talking about anything Korean that he thought of. Just the other day, he told me Korean food was very delicious.

Tim looked up and said, “Korean music is very nice. I like Korea. You like Korea?”

Of course, I answered yes. From then on, he left the sticker alone and was able to strum the C chord in that lesson.

If we were to look at the tools in the UDL guidelines, one of them is to engage the learner through their interest. Even though I represented the teaching information differently with the stickers, it was not enough to sustain his learning until I connected it to his interest in anything Korean.

Fig 7: Tim’s ecological factors

Fig 8: Tim matching the sticker on his finger to the corresponding sticker on the ukulele

Case Study 5

Dave (Undiagnosed: Suspected to have ADHD and ODD)

ADHD is “a condition connected with brain development and describes a group of behavioral difficulties marked by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity” (Institute of Mental Health, 2014).

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is a type of behaviour disorder. Children with ODD are “uncooperative, defiant, and hostile toward peers, parents, teachers, and other authority figures. They are more troubling to others than they are to themselves” (Johns Hopkins Medicine, n.d.).

Dave is suspected to have ADHD and ODD. Fig 9 shows Dave’s ecological factors. Here I share how I use multiple means of representation to present information in more than one format, and in a variety of ways to support his learning and multiple means of engagement to help him engage with learning by giving him choices and autonomy, and by incorporating his interests.

Teacher Factors

Building rapport

Gaining trust

Understanding of the condition

Classroom management when attending to child

Student Factors

Different home support

Only came to SG last year

Misses younger sister

Environment Factors

Easily distracted by anything and everything

Loves lessons with physical movements

Peer Factors

Good social skills

Has many good friends

Plays a lot during lessons

Influences peers in following his undesirable behaviours

Curriculum & Resources

Needs reminder to stay focus before and during the lesson

Activities have to be planned at short intervals

Allow time-out

It was Friday again. This meant that I would be seeing Dave during his music lesson. I needed to prepare myself mentally. Every music lesson with him had not been easy. It would really depend on his mood that day. But I had to set my mind straight as I walked towards the corridor. Immediately as I turned into the corridor, I was greeted with a loud, “Hiiiii! Mrs Lim!” Yes, that was Dave. It looked like it was going to be a great lesson as he was in a perfectly good mood. He stretched out his hands, asking for my water bottle silently. I took it out of my bag and passed it to him. He took it and stretched out his other hand to hold my hand. This routine had been ongoing since the beginning of the year. The responsibility and “honour” of carrying my water bottle intrigued him and had kept him by my side as we walked from level 1 to level 3, where the music room was. Before this, I found it a challenge to keep him and his classmates safe while we walked up the stairs. He would be running from the front to the end of the line, knocking and getting his friends to join him in running around, tripping others in the process. Many times, he would climb up and down the stairs without waiting for me and swing on the handrails. It used to be a nightmare trying to get to the music room. By the time we reached the music room, I would have been screaming at Dave and some others before we even started the lesson. That would not have been the best way to start any music lesson.

Dave had also been given the responsibility to hold the door for his classmates as they entered the music room. He felt good when others thanked him and I would usually take the opportunity to remind him of the good behaviour he had demonstrated

in the last lesson and encourage him to continue the good work in the present lesson. It would usually work but sometimes he would forget what I had reminded him and he would be rolling on the floor or doing his somersaults across the room. I was actually glad that so far (touch wood), there had been no big accidents.

Usually, I like to start my music lesson with movement as a warm-up exercise and to energise these little Primary 1s’ minds to get them ready for the rest of the lesson. This was Dave’s favourite part. As I studied his barriers to learning, I found out that he had to move. He could only focus while sitting down for a short span of time. So, I tried having games or movement activities in every lesson, be it as a main activity or just a warm-up or a time-out session for the class. It worked. In fact, it worked really well. At times, he refused to join in the activities and wanted to be at a corner of the room or just walk around. I would allow him to sit out some activities, giving him the autonomy to make his own choices. There was once during an activity, he decided that he wanted to be running along the perimeter of the room, even going out of it and coming in from another door. I stopped the whole class and said to him, “Well, I see that you are really enjoying yourself, running around and out of the room and you are doing such a great job. Why not show your friends what you have been doing and we shall enjoy a performance? Please go on.” The whole class froze. They could sense that my tone did not sound right at all. Dave glared at me, widening his eyes. He was angry and upset. He did not like to be in the limelight and did not like to be told what he could be doing directly. He was challenging me in the class because he

Fig 9: Dave’s ecological factors

was not stopping at all even after a few warnings. He stamped his feet, loudly and angrily, refusing to move at all. He had traits of oppositional defiant disorder but it was not diagnosed. By turning it around, I was hoping that he would stop and join in the class activity. In the end, he refused to move away from where he was.

I continued with the class and we had a great time, following the steady pulse of the music and moving according to the music. I left him there until the activity was over. When we started playing on the resonator bells, he came to collect his set from me. I took the chance to talk to him about what had happened. I knew he would not apologise nor would he admit his wrongdoings. I stated the would-be consequences of his actions and gave him the bells. He was actually following the playing of the resonator bells after

Limitations and Challenges

that and even took the initiative to sit in his designated space on the floor which he knew would be where he could focus while following the lesson. I usually had a hard time getting him to come to his designated space as he did not like it. From his “after” behaviour, I knew he understood that it was wrong to behave the way he did during the first part of the lesson and he was trying to make amends with me. Just before I released him back to his classroom, I spoke to him softly, asking if he knew what he did was wrong and reminded him that he should not repeat it. He nodded vigorously, hugged my legs and ran off. Just before he went into his classroom, he stopped and shouted, “Bye Mrs Lim! See you next Friday!” At that moment, Dave just warmed my heart, letting me know he was sorry and that, yes, he still enjoyed my music lessons.

Reflections

With the use of the ecological approach and the UDL framework, it provided a more holistic “coverage” of the child, allowing me to look at all factors. I was able to understand the barriers to learning for the child and it allowed me to think and prepare multiple ways to engage him/ her more effectively through the three principles of UDL. I was also able to make accommodations for the child that may have benefited the whole class too.

Inclusion is “more than a set of strategies or practices; it is an educational orientation that embraces differences & values the uniqueness that each learner brings to the classroom” (Kluth, 2011).

This journey will never end. Sometimes, there will be blooming flowers as I walk and run. Sometimes there will be rain, even thunder and lightning. But as we forge ahead for the sake of our children, we will see the rainbow at the end of the thunderstorm.

References

• CAST. (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2 http://udlguidelines.cast.org

• Ministry Of Education Singapore. (2019). Autism Spectrum Disorder [Brochure]. Ministry of Education.

Some limitations and challenges I faced during this inquiry project include the following:

*The challenge in covering the syllabus is due to the fluid COVID-19 situation in school and meeting the restrictions in social distancing measures especially in singing and movement activities. This also includes not being able to use the recorders for a term.

• Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. (n.d.). Inclusive pedagogy. https://www.celt.iastate. edu/teaching/creating-an-inclusive-classroom/ inclusive-teaching-resources/inclusive-pedagogy/

• Chaw, J. (2020). Including children with special needs: A narrative inquiry in using differentiated instruction in a mainstream music classroom. In Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (Ed.), Sounding the teaching IV: Diversity and inclusion in the music classroom (pp. 3-19). Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts.

• Institute of Mental Health. (2014). Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [Brochure]. Institute of Mental Health.

• Johns Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) in children Health. https:// www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-anddiseases/oppositional-defiant-disorder

• Kluth, P. (2011, March 3). Is your school inclusive? Paula Kluth: Toward inclusive classrooms and communities. https://www.paulakluth.com/readings/ inclusive-schooling/is-your-school-inclusive/

• Sanger, C. S. (2020). Inclusive pedagogy and universal design approaches for diverse learning environments [Abstract]. In C. S. Sanger & N. W. Gleason N. (Eds.), Diversity and inclusion in global higher education (pp. 31-71). Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/ chapter/10.1007/978-981-15-1628-3_2

• Sobol, E. S. (2017). An attitude and approach for teaching music to special learners. Rowman & Littlefield.

• Special Parent Information Network. (n.d.). Universal Design for Learning and the benefits for all children 2015-16 School Year Special Edition. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https:// spinhawaii.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2015Special-Edition.pdf

• The Nemours Foundation. (2021). How can I prevent hearing loss? Nemours TeensHealth. https:// kidshealth.org/en/teens/hearing-impairment.html