The training in music of generalist teachers for primary schools in Spanish context

Author(s):

Roberto Cremades Andreu(presenting / submitting)Desirée García Gil(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments

Format:

Paper

Session Information

20 SES 02, Music Education in an Intercultural Learning Environment

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-02

15:15-16:45

Room:

B322 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Raimonda Bruneviciute

Contribution

The convergence towards the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has supposed a decisive change in the university reality: the new system provides the student the acquisition of the necessary competencies for the suitable development of his future professional activity, involving him in an active way on his learning process (Gonzalez and Wagenaar, 2003).

In Spain this transformation has been reflected, specially, in the Bachelor’s Degree in Primary Education studies. These have diminished the subjects destined to the training of specialized teachers in different didactics, promoting the figure of the general teacher. That situation is not a new one because the educational functions that future teachers will have to develop are similar to the existing ones in the educational Spanish system previous to 1990, when the same professional was attending to different fields of knowledge.

In this sense, different studies have been centred on analysing the musical training of the general teachers and their aptitude to take to the practice musical activities in the primary school (Byo, 2000; Georgii-Hemming and Westvall, 2010; Hallam, et to, 2009; Holden and Button, 2006). The conclusions of these investigations indicate that the musical teaching, that the general studies teachers receive, is limited and, as a result, that lack affects to their ability to give the subject in a suitable way. In consequence, this generates that the teacher who does not feel qualified to carry out musical activities avoids them in class (Russell-Bowie, 2009).

Following this line of argument, the present work studies the musical training developed in the current Degree in Primary Education comparing it with the curricular requirements demanded for that level of studies. From this premise the following aims have been established:

- To find out if the musical training which is received by the students of the Degree in Primary Education favors the acquisition of the necessary professional competencies to give the subject of Music,

- To evaluate the self-concept that the students of the Master Degree in Primary Education have on the musical knowledge that they have acquired.

Method

The participants were 122 students who had taken the subject of Music of the Bachelor’s Degree in Primary Education in the Faculty of Education at the University Complutense of Madrid during the academic course 2012/2013. 97 women (79.5 %) and 25 men (20.5 %), with ages between 19 and 38 years old (Mage=20.98): 106 had acceded to these studies trough undergraduate admission tests (86.9 %), 13 were coming from higher professional training (10.7 %) and 3 had did the test for older than 25 (2.5 %). To the selected sample was applied a questionnaire adapted from Yim, Abd-El-Fattah, and Lee (2007), where the participants were asked about their perception in regards to the acquisition of the contents which must be given in the classrooms of primary education in Madrid (Decreto 22, 2007): musical language, singing, movement and dance, dramatisation with music, musical hearing, improvisation, creation and performance, among others. The results reveal that, according to the students, these last one have limited training in the contents related to movement and dance, and in the interdisciplinary treatment of music with other curricular fields; whereas they are more confident with regard to the perception and the expression of basic elements of the music, as well as to the schedule of collective musical activities that favour the cooperative work, the individual one, the interaction between equals and the independent learning. In relation to the level of musical knowledge acquired, the scoring average obtained was 7.5 out of 10.

Expected Outcomes

The information obtained to give response to the first aim shows that the musical training received by students does not favour the acquisition of the necessary professional competencies to give all the musical contents (Holden and Button, 2006). That circumstance is explained by the impossibility to go in depth in the subject due to the scant number of hours to give it. The best scored item was the schedule of collective musical activities, since on not having been related to specifically musical contents, they were more related to their general training. The information obtained to reply to the second aim shows that, according to the pupils opinions, students experience, in spite of the brief period of training, an increase of musical knowledge and as a result the good valuation of it. Therefore, this study shows two principal conclusions: [1] the contents of the subject of Music in Primary can not be approached by the presence of only one subject in the study plan and [2] the musical contents demanded by the curriculum of Primary need to be given by teachers with a higher musical training.

References

Byo, S. (2000). Classroom teachers’ and music specialists’ perceived ability to implement the national standards for music education. Arts Education Policy Review 101(5), 30-35. Decreto 22/2007, de 10 de mayo, del Consejo de Gobierno, por el que se establece para la Comunidad de Madrid el currículo de la Educación Primaria. González, J., & Wagenaar, R (2003). Tuning educational structures in Europe: final report. Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto. Georgii-Hemming, E., & Westvall, M. (2010). Teaching music in our time: student music teachers' reflections on music education, teacher education and becoming a teacher. Music Education Research, 12 (4), 353-367. DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2010.519380. Hallam, S., Burnard, P., Robertson, A., Saleh, C., Davies, V., Rogers, L., & Kokatsaki, D. (2009). Trainee primary-school teachers’ perceptions of their effectiveness in teaching music. Music Education Research, 11(2), 221-240. doi: 10.1080/14613800902924508. Hilary Holden and Stuart Button (2006). The teaching of music in the primary school by the non-music specialist. British Journal of Music Education, 23, 23-38. doi:10.1017/S0265051705006728. Russell-Bowie, D. (2009). What me? Teach music to my primary class? Challenges to teaching music in primary schools in five countries. Music Education Research, 11(1), 23-36. doi: 10.1080/14613800802699549 Yim, Abd-El-Fattah, & Lee (2007). A rasch analysis of the teacher music confidence scale. Intenational Educaion Journal, 8(2), 260-269.

Author Information

Roberto Cremades Andreu (presenting / submitting)

Faculty of Education. Complutense University of Madrid

Department of Music and Physical Education

Madrid

Desirée García Gil (presenting)

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Expresión Musical y Corporal