Understanding
Listening
Activating intentional listening to develop musical understandings
Ms Adela Josephine, HOD (Aesthetic, PE & CCA) shares her teacher-leadership and PD journey
Highlights
Photo highlights of STAR PD programmes from January to May 2019
Josephine
Adeline
he students in our classroom today come from a wide range of social, economic and cultural backgrounds, each bringing with them a diversity of personal musical preferences and musicmaking experiences. The music classroom therefore offers fertile possibilities for students to share their musical worlds and broaden each other’s’ horizons through making music together.
Just as our students are diverse, so are music pedagogies. There isn’t one particular pedagogy that will serve all our students’ needs. Neither is there one universal music pedagogy that music educators should adopt. Rather, a skilful teacher is one who draws on and adapts from various teaching approaches. When these approaches take into consideration our students‘ unique backgrounds and capabilities, and are synthesised creatively, it can facilitate meaningful musical experiences and enrich student learning as we grant significance to their voices.
Another challenge music teachers face, is how to help students go beyond hearing to listening. While hearing involves sensing sound, listening involves using the mind for sense-making and imaginative possibilities. How music teachers can help stimulate students’ thinking through listening as an active and dynamic process and activate listening as an integral part of performing and creating music, is worth exploring.
In this thought-provoking issue of STAR-post, we explore ways of deepening our reflective practices that will engage our students in relevant and impactful ways, so as to develop their musical voice, and foster 21st century competencies. Enjoy the read!
James Lee Deputy Director, Music Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts
The word “eclectic' originates from the Greek word “eklegin' which is to derive things from various sources. In music education, an eclectic approach to teaching is to utilise a range of methods and ideas to engage our students in music learning.
Clockwise from top right:
North Zone STAR Champions mimicking the movement of a rodeo to represent a section of the music
East Zone STAR Champions putting their fingers to their lips to signify a rest beat
Professor Gault leading the participants in singing the “Syncopated Clock” using solfège
STAR was privileged to host Dr Brent M. Gault, Professor of Music (Music Education) from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music who specialises in elementary general music education and Kodály inspired methodology. He also has training in both the Orff and Dalcroze approaches to music education.
With in-depth experiences in various music pedagogies, Professor Gault utilised the different approaches to facilitate meaningful ways of music teaching for our Primary and Secondary STAR Champions. There are many ways to engage students in music experiences and Professor Gault demonstrated how an eclectic approach to teaching music could help weave music concepts at appropriate levels and complexities to design a spiral curriculum.
From left:
West Zone STAR Champions rehearsing their 12-bar blues composition
South Zone STAR Champions playing the composition co-created by the class
Click to hear Professor Gault on using different approaches in combination
One point of view about the eclectic approach may be that it is simply the use of different approaches based on the preferences of a teacher. Some also liken an eclectic approach to a “rojak” where it is a mixture of different ingredients put into a dish. However, there is more to an eclectic approach than just a hotchpotch of different methods.
guided by the values and beliefs of music education, to deliver a holistic and meaningful lesson.
1 Rojak is a dish of mixed vegetables, fruits and dough fritters that is covered in a sticky black sauce and garnished with chopped peanuts and fine-cut fragrant ginger flowers.
2 Abril, C. S. & Gault, B. M. (2016). Teaching General Music: Approaches, Issues, and Viewpoints. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Each music teaching approach has its own unique philosophy just as each ingredient in a “rojak” 1 dish has its distinct flavour. But when thoughtfully put together, the ingredients blend nicely into a harmonious and piquant taste similar to how the eclectic teacher would consider and choose the various teaching approaches,
The challenge to using an eclectic pedagogy is to know why one is borrowing a technique, activity or idea, otherwise, it can result in a series of aimless activities without a clear sense of where those experiences are going (Abril & Gault, 2016) 2 . Therefore, it is crucial that the teacher has an understanding of the values, beliefs and theories of each music teaching approach, to purposefully adapt the lesson according to their students’ level and ability.
At the Eclectic Approach to Primary Music Teaching Workshop
Left: Participants conducting a song
Right: Like a snail moving around and around as participants sing and move to a song
Using partnerdance to accompany the learning of a song at the Eclectic Approach to Primary Music Teaching Workshop
At the Primary and Secondary STAR Champions workshop, Professor Gault shared how various music concepts can be taught from simple to complex across Primary to Secondary levels. This was the first time the Primary and Secondary STAR Champions shared a common music learning experience to understand
how a spiral curriculum could be delivered in a clear structured manner. Seeing how Professor Gault skillfully moved from the experiential to the theoretical through intentional lesson design, leveraging different teaching approaches, it brought new insights to the importance of upstreaming and bridging the learnings from Primary to Secondary level, to meet curricular goals.
Professor Gault sharing on the Spiral Curriculum
3 Bruner, J.S. (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
“We begin
with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.”
Bruner, 1960, p.333
In other words, students at any age are capable of learning any material so long as the instruction is scaffolded and organised appropriately to their level.
He created sequential learning events that cover the basic tenets of music from rhythm, meter, melody to form and phrasing. Each time, he would revisit the conceptual ideas with increasing levels of complexity and sophistication.
1. Knowledge is reinforced with each revisit of the music concept/ topic and this happens several times throughout the students’ school life
2. Logical progression with increased complexity at each visit
3. Knowledge gained is put into context with past/current knowledge and applied to construct new ideas or concepts
WATCH
Click to watch Professor Gault in action, using an eclectic approach to teach Form and Countermelody
In designing each activity, Professor Gault considered how various approaches could be used to teach and enhance the learning experiences. Though there are many overlaps in the Kodály, Orff and Dalcroze approaches, some approaches land themselves better with certain activities. With activities that are more singing-based, one might consider
using the Kodály approach to express music through voice. To cover the concept of form, one could use the Dalcroze approach, such as eurhythmics, so students can use their body to experience music elements. To inject creativity, one could include speech, body percussion and composition using the Orff approach.
WATCH
Click to hear Professor Gault on Matching Different Approaches to Curricular Goals
“We learnt about the eclectic approach, choosing different methods that best matches the learning styles and abilities of my students.
In fact, my own teaching has developed into a blend of elements from the approaches I have encountered over the years. That said, I realise that careful planning and a good understanding of the class is needed. I would continue to gather a plethora of different methods and use those materials in multiple ways in my music lessons.”
Ms Lim Hui Wen Jwen Woodgrove Secondary School
Click to hear Professor Gault share ideas on how we can make music classes relevant
As teachers, it is important for us to know our students. Each has their own learning styles, behaviours and attitudes, and an eclectic approach could offer different ways of teaching to cater to the different learning needs.
“I was inspired and adapted one of the teaching tools I had learnt from the workshop in the week I returned to school.
My students thoroughly enjoyed the activity and were quick to understand the concepts that were to be learnt. I appreciate the simplicity of the tools and how it can be scaled up or down to suit the needs of my students.”
Click to hear Professor Gault’s views on how we can incorporate technology to enhance our current approaches
Moreover, students of today are very different from students of the previous generation and this applies to future generations of students as well. Therefore, it is crucial that we reflect upon our teaching practice and adapt them accordingly to make music learning experiences relevant and engaging.
One way of making lessons relevant is in repertoire selection – introducing songs that students can identify with, be it songs of shared lived experiences, folk songs or popular songs. Another way is to introduce technology in the music-making process. These are considerations to bear in mind to make music accessible to our students.
A reflective music teacher is one who is continually developing their practice and re-informing their pedagogical decisions in relation to shifts in society and the learning needs of our students. Whichever approaches we consider, one thing is common – providing a rich experience to inspire and impact students’ music learning.
Which pedagogical approach(es) best help my students learn this music concept?
What do the students already know?
Which pedagogical approach(es) best help my students to draw on their prior understanding to acquire this new learning?
What learning characteristics do this class of students have?
Which pedagogical approach(es) best meet their learning style(s)?
When asking students to listen to a piece of music, what exactly are we asking them to listen to? Is it the number of times a phrase repeats? Or is it about the entry points of particular instruments? These are some of the questions that could be posed to students to activate intentional listening.
Left: Participants engaged in music-making as they listened to a piece of music
Right: Using body movements to respond to music
There is a fine line between hearing and listening. Where hearing is accidental, involuntary and effortless, listening requires one to be focused and intentional. Put simply, hearing is through the ears and listening is through the mind.
In the context of teaching music, students may already have developed a habit of hearing without listening. They may be familiar with a piece or may know it well but they may not have thought deeply about the piece nor the details that may be present in the music.
Looking at the issue from another perspective, of the three processes of music learning (Listening, Creating and Performing) in the Primary and Lower Secondary Music Syllabus, the Listening component might sometimes be neglected due to a narrow definition of what constitutes music listening and its perceived passive nature. But as an intentional activity, active listening can develop in students, aural capacities and musical understandings.
Active listening requires students to engage with and think about what they hear. In other words, active listening is listening with a purpose. As teachers, what are some ways we can use to direct students’ attention and engender active rather than passive listening?
How can we engage our students to listen actively to a classical piece?
WATCH
Click here to watch how Ms Rinat engages participants in active listening through movement
At the workshop on “Creative student-centric approaches through classical music for primary school music teachers”, Ms Rinat Efron Gilad, District Music Education Supervisor from Tel Aviv, Israel, advocated the importance of active listening to cultivate a habit of observing with the ears in the music learning process.
Right: Participants jumping into the hula hoop each time they hear the end of a phrase
Misconceptions can often arise where one presumes that complex pieces can only be introduced at the higher levels. For example, a classical piece, Pizzicato by Léo Delibes, can be used at the younger ages. A Primary 3 student could be asked to listen out for the end of a phrase marked by an ascending 3-note motif. Each time they hear the end of the phrase, they would hop into a hula hoop, thereby engaging the body in response to the music.
On the other hand, a Secondary 3 student might be asked to analyse and mark out the musical form such as the introduction, the 16-bar theme, finding the antecedent and consequent phases, repetitions of the theme and suggest implications to the use of the bright 3-quaver motif. They could use their hands to gesture each repetition of the theme or they could also play the notes in the motif on their instruments.
“Consider the complexity of the listening tasks rather than the complexity of the musical piece”
What is the dominant characteristic (theme, rhythm, phrase, etc.) of the piece?
Is there any relation to the title?
What musical styles are present in the piece to depict various emotions and relate to the emotional world of the students?
Is there a repetitive structure such as a recurring motive?
Are there clear contrasting sections?
Ultimately, perspectives can be reframed to consider the complexity of the listening tasks rather than the complexity of the musical piece. Nonetheless, one would need to be familiar with the details of the piece and how to design the listening tasks to draw out the learning from the students.
The importance of listening is also addressed and discussed in the Critical Inquiry (CI) publication, Sounding the Teaching III: Facilitating Learning with Digital Technology. Drawing from Professor Patricia Sheehan Campbell’s (2016) 1 five-phase World Music Pedagogy, the CI article, “Listening as a Pedagogy” discusses how the first three active listening phases can also be applied in the context of technology-based music lessons of three music teachers.
Participants using Curwen handsigns as they sing the melody
1 Campbell, P. S. (2016). World Music Pedagogy: Where music meets culture in classroom practice.
In Abril A. R., & Gault, B. M. (Eds.), Teaching General Music: Approaches, Issues, and Viewpoints (pp. 97-111). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Attentive Listening
Directed and focused on music elements and structures
Listening as a pedagogy is a strategy that teachers can apply to develop critical capacities as the students receive and process aural information. It requires the teacher to guide the students in the process of listening
rather than hearing – to discern what they hear, to examine interrelations between the sounds, the context of the music, and essentially cultivating listening habits that nurture critical thinking skills.
Creating World Music Invention of new music in the style of a musical model through extension, improvisation or composition 01 02 03 04 05
Engaged Listening
Active participation by the listener in musicmaking as the music is played
Enactive Listening Performance of the work through listening to every musical nuance such that the music is recreated as stylistically accurate as possible
Three Active Listening Phases as discussed in the CI article, “Listening as a Pedagogy”
Integrating World Music
Examining music as it connects to culture and life
2 Desantis, D. (2015). Making music: 74 creative strategies for electronic music producers. Retrieved December 20, 2018 from https://makingmusic. ableton.com/about
Students to listen to the music as they view an animated score where the dots take the shape of the melodic contours of the music and where different colours represent different instrument timbres. Through this activity, they would need to observe patterns (arpeggios, modulations, contrary motion, sequence) and understand musical concepts and structures.
Students use body percussion or instruments to play the beats of each bar as they listen to the instrumental track played in the background.
Moving the body or playing on instruments while listening helps the students make connections with the music, allowing them to internalise the understanding of beat.
Students are tasked to listen to elements such as texture, instrumentation and tempo, to deconstruct (Desantis, 2015) 2 and recreate as close a copy of what they have heard. They would work out an arrangement of the individual parts in the music on their Digital Audio Workstations (DAW).
Aesthetic Musical Flow
Musical Communication & Cultures Provide Meaningful Choices and Empowerment
Musical Voice of Students
Musical Creativity Facilitate Creative Process
Musical Collaboration
Facilitate Collaborative Group Works and Musical Ensemble
“In guiding students through the process of active listening, we empower students to respond to, interpret and analyse musical works and concepts”
Listening habits cultivated from a young age can help one build analytical skills and be sensitised to the nuances and details in the music. Often as students progress to higher levels, analysis becomes technical and tends to neglect the musical engagement of the mind and body. It is, however, crucial to continue to build musicality and one way is through active listening.
Active listening develops Critical Thinking in Music, one of the music pedagogical leverages for developing emerging 21CC.
In guiding students through the process of active listening, we empower students to respond to, interpret and analyse musical works and concepts. As musical experience is fundamentally a qualitative one, building such critical listening and thinking skills help them to discern quality and make sound judgements of the music.
During the “Jazz and Popular Music Teaching with an Orff-Inspired Approach” workshop for “O” and “A” Level teachers, Mr Doug Goodkin a Music Educator and Proponent of Orff Schulwerk, demonstrated how active listening could be made fun and engaging for students.
“Engaged and active
listening
can also
encompass responses through body movements where one emotes with gestures as they listen to the melodic lines in the piece.”
Click here to see how teachers participate in engaged listening through body movement
Explaining the story of how the 12-Bar Blues came about, Mr Goodkin got the teachers to listen to the chord changes and display the names and functions of the chords with their fingers in relation to the music. For instance, chord I is represented with the index finger and chord V with five fingers. Once the chords are established, the teachers improvise facial expressions to denote each of the chords in the 12-Bar Blues as
Mr Goodkin showing participants the musical structure of a blues piece after a musicking activity
Mr Goodkin performs the piece on the guitar. Attuning one’s ears to the chords in the music using comical facial expressions reinforces the structure while eliciting much laughter, making the lesson a memorable one.
Engaged and active listening can also encompass responses through body movements where one emotes with gestures as they listen to the melodic lines in the piece.
Our bodies move naturally in response to any music that we hear, be it the bobbing of the body or tapping of the feet or even just a slight tilt of the head. Therefore, when listening is made an intentional activity and the listener is made aware of how the body reacts to changes in the music relating to form, rhythm, melody, etc., it develops musical understandings to help one make connections to the music.
Participants on Orff mallets, improvising on the 12-bar blues
Listening on its own is part of the equation but nonetheless a crucial one that is key to developing Critical and Inventive Thinking, one of the 21CC. When the teacher builds an awareness of how music concepts are linked through active listening, it lays the ground for students' future creative works - learning which can be transferred to other areas of study that will prepare our students for the globalised world we live in.
“When
the teacher builds an awareness of how music concepts are linked through active listening, it lays the ground for students' future creative works - learning which can be transferred to other areas of study that will prepare our students for the globalised world we live in”
‘Musicking’ is music in action to encourage music expression and play.
1 Small, C. (1998).
Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.
‘Musicking’, is a term coined by Small (1998) 1 , to emphasise the nature of music as ‘an activity’ and ‘not a thing’, which is ‘something that people do’ (p. 2). Music is only realised when there is action, not just only on the performer or the people producing the music, but the action of the audience as well.
He proposed that ‘to music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practising, by providing material for performance (which is called composing), or by dancing’ (p. 9).
In the spirit of encouraging students to experience music through active participation, Musicking Cards was developed. Comprising three sets of cards, the cards serve as prompt cards to facilitate musical understanding and creative expression through music exploration and making. Yet at the
same time, students will acquire the musical vocabulary to describe and explain their creative ideas.
Due to the randomness and surprises that the cards offer, it can stimulate discussions and promote creative work. Thus, there is much flexibility in how the cards can be used and combined depending on the topic and level.
ON THE NEXT PAGE ARE SOME IDEAS FOR COMPOSITIONAL ACTIVITIES USING MUSICKING CARDS
Imagine how Musicking Cards could enhance your students’ compositions.
WATCH
Click here to view an example of how Set 1 Musicking Cards could be used
The idea below is one way in which a compositional activity could be conducted. How can we take the students’ compositional work to the next level using Musicking Cards?
• Students to begin by imagining how the symbols could be interpreted into musical motifs by exploring on different instruments.
• They then put the motifs in a sequential order to join the musical ideas and form a short composition.
Musicking Cards can offer students musical cues that they can explore and apply in their composition.
• They could be introduced to the tempo cards such as accelerando and ritardando and decide where they would apply these in their composition.
WATCH
Click here to view an example of how Set 1 and Set 2 Musicking Cards could be used in combination
• SEE Students could imagine how an underwater world looks like and list some aquatic and non-aquatic life.
• THINK They would think of how to symbolise these marine plants, animals and organisms.
• WONDER They would wonder how these symbols could be represented through sounds.
• They would put the symbols in a sequential order to create a structure for their composition.
• They could apply their knowledge of Form here.
TO THIS IDEA (USING MUSICKING CARDS)
• Musicking Cards can provide trigger words for students to explore concepts that they would not usually think of.
• For example, the teachers could provide students with Musicking Cards - Time and Space from Set 2.
• Students would select one of the words (such as meter, syncopation or interlocking rhythm) found on the card, and decide how they would apply it to their composition.
WATCH
Click here to view an example of how Set 1 and Set 3 Musicking Cards could be used in combination
• Students to recall and describe how they felt on their first MRT train ride.
• With the responses given, they are to create musical motifs and put them together.
The randomness and the surprise elements that Musicking Cards can offer, encourages students to improve their compositional work musically and make it more sophisticated.
• Students could pick two cards from the deck of cue cards curated by the teacher and apply them in their composition just as in Composition Idea 1 on pg 20, "Creating a composition from symbols".
• To further develop their composition, Set 3 Question Cards could be introduced for students to explore other concepts such as Form, Development, Expression, Contrast, etc.
• For example, if the student chooses the card "Development – Climax", they would be prompted to think of where the peak is in the music, how they would build the music to reach that peak and what to do after the peak.
Click the links below to view more examples of how Musicking Cards can be used, contributed by Sec STAR Champions in Sound Explorations ll
Melodic Jamming with Keyboards
Combination Rhythms Using Body Percussion or Classroom Percussion Instruments
Creating Lyrics to an Existing Loop-based Arrangement
“Musicking cards can bring about greater diversity of ideas as it motivates students to experiment beyond what they are comfortable with”
Exploring the contents and questions by students in the Musicking Cards coupled with teachers’ thoughtful planning, opens up a whole world of creative possibilities to facilitate and further develop students’ musical ideas.
Musicking cards can bring about much greater diversity of ideas as it motivates students to experiment beyond what they are usually comfortable with.
Students have the flexibility and the space to choose how they interpret and apply the musical concepts (in the cards)
to their compositional ideas. Not only would the Musicking Cards help extend the students’ musical vocabulary to make the music more interesting, it encourages student voice as they are empowered to make musical decisions and create music that is uniquely theirs.
Furthermore, as students revisit their music composition, they begin to understand the iterative process of music-making and also learn the importance of trial and error – a key factor to build resilience, innovation and entrepreneurial dare.
STAR Champion Adela Josephine shares her journey as a teacher-leader and how she challenges herself to design innovative lesson to engage her students.
The Arts Education Conference (AEC) 2018 is a space for us arts educators, to examine ways we can facilitate arts engagement and provide the platform for the exchange of ideas relating to arts education. What are your thoughts after attending the conference?
The conference theme "Arts for the Future: Intersections and Transformation" gave me a refreshing view of Arts Education and its future directions. The forward-
STAR Champion Adela Josephine facilitating a musicking activity with her students
looking perspectives shared at the conference challenged us to rethink and reflect on our role as arts educators and how we need to keep abreast with current practices so as to to provide quality learning experiences for our students.
What stood out for you at AEC?
The strand “Intersections in Disciplines – Arts educators as lifelong learners” stood out for me. As arts educators, we should be lifelong learners, take advantage of new knowledge gained and design rich learning experiences for our students. Exploring possible connections with other disciplines and leveraging technology-based innovations are some ways we can develop intersectional ideas. For example, I attended the session by
Bringing music out of the classroom where students can express their creative ideas at the Music Garden
Lead Teacher, Lim Hwee Sian, on using technology as a learning tool to encourage students to be self-directed and improve their performance. I also attended the Masterclass by Dr Ros Mcmillan who emphasised the importance of developing creativity. Thus, it spurred me to think about how I intentionally design lessons that encourages student voice, to allow my students to have ownership over their learning, make musical decisions and express their own creative ideas.
Exploring intersections sounds exciting. What are some intersectional ideas you’ve tried in your music class?
One of the ideas that intrigued me was the intersection between PE (Physical Education) and Music through dance (movement), shared by the teachers from Lianhua Primary
School. Movement is common between the two subjects but both use movement differently to understand different concepts specific to the discipline. Hence, I approached the PE teachers in my school to explore the possibility of an intersection between PE and Music for Lower Primary. In my music lessons, I draw the connection between PE and music by introducing creative movement such as using movement as a warm-up activity at the start of the lesson.
From this activity, my students were able to demonstrate greater spatial awareness and also the importance of having good form or good posture while performing movements. They also understood that dance requires them to have stamina and to move to the beat. Before getting students to create their own movements, I introduced other movements borrowed from Zumba, aerobics and even hip hop dance. My students found that they could relate the music movement activities to PE movement activities. With this intersection, my students are more confident in performing using movement as it has become integral in their weekly music lessons, just like they do in PE lessons.
You have been a STAR Champion for quite some time now. Could you share with us your journey as a teacher-leader?
This is my 7th year as a STAR Champion and I have seen the role of STAR Champions evolve over the years. Previously, we would trial what we’ve learnt from the Outstanding-Educators-InResidence (OEIRs) and the Music Master Teachers and cascade our learnings through organising a Cluster Workshop. Over the years, however, the STAR Champions adapted and collaboratively designed lesson ideas to be shared at the Zonal level.
Definitely, the STAR Champions community has grown strong into one where we are open to sharing our pedagogical ideas and classroom practices. Furthermore, we’ve become a family that supports and encourages each other to reflect and improve our teaching practices.
What’s exciting this year is the opportunity for STAR Champions from both Primary and Secondary levels to work together for greater synergy. For me, I chose to look into the teaching of ukulele and got to work with a secondary counterpart to design a curriculum that spirals from Stage 1 to Stage 4.
You attended the workshop on Eclectic Approach to Teaching Music as part of the STAR Champions Programme this year. What are your thoughts about this approach to teaching? The eclectic approach really resonated with me. I have the flexibility to use multi-modal approaches that best suit the learning needs of my students. Dr Gault’s lesson enactment was truly refreshing as he skilfully demonstrated how various music pedagogies could work in harmony and how teachers can create an immersive learning experience for their students.
What were some key takeaways from the workshop?
There are two areas of consideration when using the eclectic approach:
• Students' Musical Behaviours to consider where the students are at, (e.g. their ability to perform or improvise) and also what is relevant for their learning in relation to their musical experiences
• Acquisition of Music Concept to consider how a music concept can be scaffolded, to cater to the range of learners in the classroom
Adela recognises the varied learners in her class and seeks ways to make learning meaningful for all
I realised that I might have unconsciously applied an eclectic approach in my music lessons. But after the workshop, I became mindful of the suitability of the various pedagogies to deliver lesson outcomes and meet my students’ learning needs. For example, I may be teaching a music concept as part of the curriculum to the Primary 2 cohort but I can use different pedagogies in different combinations to deliver them, depending on the profile of each music class. Instead of focusing just on a certain pedagogy, now I have more tools that I can work with.
More importantly, we need to be reflective and aware of each pedagogy’s principles and philosophy to design engaging lessons that nurtures 21CC and bring out our students’ musical voice.
Thank you for the glimpse into your role as STAR Champion and the impactful work that you are doing with the other teacherleaders. What are some of your hopes for the fraternity? My hope is for the music teachers in Singapore to continually upgrade themselves – both pedagogically and musically. I strongly believe that by being better musicians ourselves, coupled with sound pedagogies, we will be able to engage our students more effectively and meaningfully through our music lessons. We cannot teach Music well if we ourselves are not musical as our students look to us as their role models.
In school, you may feel lonely as there might be just one or two music teachers, however, we can network and work collaboratively with others, be it within the cluster of music teachers or with music teachers we meet during workshops. You can ask questions or even get some useful ideas from the sharing. Of course, if you have good practices, please share them with the fraternity too. Together, we can level up the standard of music teaching in Singapore.
Another semester of new musical experiences with STAR. We’ve put together a roundup of highlights that have been taken place.
01 Dikir Barat performance by participants at the Teaching Living Legends Workshop
02 Maestro Tsung Yeh inspiring teachers to innovate and advocate for Singapore music at the MOE-NAC Master Artist Series
03 Teacher-performers at the Afternoon Soirée as part of the Music Teacher Practitioner Programme 04 Participants recreating their version of a song at the Engaging With Songs Workshop
05 Participants from our BT (Sec) workshop using Musicking Cards for music making 06 MOE Kindergarten teachers exploring beat, phrase and rhythm through games with Lucinda Geoghegan at the EWS Early Childhood Workshop 07 Seeing the connections between Music and PE at the STAR Senior and Lead Teacher Programme
08 Using movement to experience music concepts at the Dalcroze Approach for Student-Centric Music Lessons Workshop with OEIR Jack Stevenson 09 Strumming to the tune of Telok Blangah at the BT (Pri) Workshop
Lee Huan Siak James
Deputy Director (Music)
Lee_Huan_Siak@moe.gov.sg
+65 6664 1493
Chan Yen See
Master Teacher (Music)
Chan_Yen_See@moe.gov.sg
+65 6664 1499
Suriati Bte Suradi
Master Teacher (Music)
Suriati_Suradi@moe.gov.sg
+65 6664 1498
Chua Siew Ling
Master Teacher (Music)
Chua_Siew_Ling@moe.gov.sg
+65 6664 1501
Kelly Tang
Master Teacher (Music)
Kelly_Tang@moe.gov.sg
+65 6664 1561
Tan Li Jen Adeline
Senior Academy Officer (Music)
Adeline_Tan@moe.gov.sg
+65 6664 1494
Chan Yu Ling Josephine
Senior Academy Officer (Music)
Josephine_Chan@moe.gov.sg
+65 6664 1555
Eng Yan Chen Alvyn
Academy Officer (Music)
Alvyn_Eng@moe.gov.sg
+65 6664 1497
Wong Yong Ping Tommy
Academy Officer (Music)
Tommy_Wong@moe.gov.sg
+65 6664 1495