Hard to Teach

Following a request from Becta for proposals for the provision of support to subject teachers for ‘using ICT effectively in subject teaching’. NAME was awarded a contract to provide teacher support materials for ‘hard to teach’ topics within music.
 
Between January and March 2008, project manager Andy Murray worked with practitioners to identify hard(er) to teach areas of the KS3 music curriculum and to develop guidance and resources. The areas selected were:

• World music
• Attentive listening
• Imaginative composing
• Improvising
• Using vocabulary
• Teaching notation

The resulting resources are also of use in other key stages.

Resources

World music Some teachers find it hard to motivate pupils to embrace musical styles that they do not identify with as part of their chosen youth subculture. They are sometimes reluctant to be seen to be more open for fear of ridicule as 'uncool'.

Attentive listening In a media-rich world, pupils are just not accustomed to listening with focus and undivided attention. It is hard to get them to listen attentively and to articulate with precision what they have heard.

Imaginative composing Some teachers report that they are disappointed by the level of imagination and inventiveness shown by their KS3 students in composing activities. Scaffolding of tasks can ease the process but can also lead to convergence of outcomes.

Improvising Some class teachers feel they were were trained as stave-slaves with no real attention given to improvising skills. They find it hard to teach improvising effectively when they can't really do it themselves.

Using vocabulary Teachers do not really find it hard to explain and demonstrate most musical concepts. But their pupils are not then automatically able to apply appropriate vocabulary themselves in fluent and accurate sentences when appraising music, and this is the aspect that is considered hard to teach.

Teaching notation Some teachers say they find it hard to teach notation and motivate pupils. There was evidence that this is perhaps because their approach is based on their own very traditional background. There is a tendency toward over-reliance on standard notation without due consideration to whether it is the best for the learning context.