KS3

This article reports on a school-based research project into teaching composing at GCSE, setting
this alongside a review of the literature. It suggests that research into cognition in composing in
school students and teaching composing within a school context may be synthesised by understanding
composing as problem solving. Composing is described as knowledge-rich, complex, multiple and
creative problem solving, requiring the development of skills of hypothesis and verification in
students. A series of case studies of individual teachers is analysed using Bernstein’s framework
for coding knowledge in the curriculum. Research data presented suggest that although there is
significant variation in the practice of individual teachers, teaching composing is characterised
in the main activities of instruction and training in composing skills and knowledge; management of
a positive creative learning environment; and facilitation of ownership, autonomy and authority in
students.

The article concludes by suggesting that conceptualising teaching composing as problem solving
enables music educators to rationalise the speci?c demands of the curriculum context in which they
are operating by providing students with a framework for cognitive development in composing.

How is information and communications technology (ICT) used to promote musical learning by pupils
aged eleven to fourteen, i.e. pupils in Key Stage 3? Inspectors from the Office for Standards in
Education (OFSTED) visited 52 schools in England, and inspected 161 Key Stage 3 music lessons that
made some use of ICT. This article describes the characteristics of the good teaching found in 106
of those lessons, and discusses some issues concerning the use of ICT in classrooms.

The support of the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) in providing part of the funding
for this inspection project is gratefully acknowledged.

1: The extent to which teachers and student teachers feel themselves to be composers. I suspect that
despite all the innovations that have taken place in the music curriculum over the last thirty years
with composing supposedly being treated as of equal importance as performing and listening, there is
still the feeling that composing is something that only 'special' people do and consequently music
teachers are less likely to personally engage with it. This then has an impact on their
understanding of the processes of composing and their confidence in teaching it.

2: The extent to which we should intervene in children's composing. I know that we feel that we
ought to help pupils extend, develop or organise their ideas- that's what we're paid for and it
justifies our existence! Sometimes when listening to music I really enjoy, I put on my music
teacher's hat and think how I would respond to a particular tune or idea were it offered to me by a
pupil. In most cases I would advise them to develop or extend it and of course, in the process, ruin
it (second subject Schubert Quintet- just goes round and round, using limited notes. C- must do
better!) It might well be that we ought for most of the time just leave them alone unless
specifically asked to intervene.

3: I think you are absolutely right to say that we should focus on the process of composing. It's
probably also well worth getting children to understand that in many musical cultures/genres the
idea of a product (in terms of something fixed) is quite alien. This can be a quite liberating
thought!

Gary
gary.spruce July 15th, 2009

This paper is based on a five-year research project into the work of music teachers in Northern
Ireland. It is concerned with the implications of the research for the curriculum. The results
reveal a serious shortage of suitably qualified music teachers in the Province, and significant
deficiencies in funding and facilities for the subject. They also reveal that many teachers doubt
the value of their general classroom teaching, and prefer their extra-curricular activities. The
author suggests that Music should become an option during Key Stage Three which schools would have
to provide, and which motivated pupils could choose as an alternative to the other `Creative and
Expressive' subjects.

This resource provides an example of a whole day session for Music and History students on an 11-18 PGCE programme which was devised to promote effective cross-curricular, collaborative teaching and learning. For part of the session the student teachers were put into a pupil role, although the tasks that they were set were appropriate to them rather than their pupils. Throughout the parts of the session when the student teachers were in role the tutors modelled what they saw to be effective teaching strategies that could be adopted and adapted to use in a classroom situation.
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Understanding music through composing was a workshop run for trainee music teachers and music subject mentors at Birmingham City University on 29th January 2009. The aim of this workshop was: To identify pedagogy that will help young people to think creatively through music and to understand how composers think. The workshop was based on the findings from a school based composing project with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG). The key contributors included: Ian Axtell (Birmingham City University); Robert Bunting (formerly Adviser for Music, Birmingham LA); Nancy Evans (Educational Manager, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group); Adrian Spillett (percussionist, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group); Chris Stevens (Deputy Head, Fairfax School, former Head of Music/AST, Ninestiles School). Initials have been used to identify key contributions.