CESI Conference January 2002 St.Patrick's College

Dr Michael Murphy,Music Department, Mary Immaculate College

Abstract
In 2000 I designed a website entitled ‘Composition for Children: A Resource for Classroom Teachers’.[1] The site was a series of lessons plans with supporting advise for those primary school teachers who would like to teach music composition to their pupils (aged 9 upwards) but who feel that their own musical skills are inadequate for that task. So as to test the usability of my site I enlisted the support of a fellow teacher to implement the lessons in her classroom and to allow me to interview her afterwards on her experience. This paper reports on that interview and attendant matters.

Introduction
As a musician, lecturer in music and former primary teacher, I am interested in modes of communicating musical culture to children. The vast majority of children are natural musicians and love music. Their creativity is spontaneous and seemingly endless. However, through no fault of their own, many primary teachers never get to foster this creativity. Certain methods of training teachers, and society's notion of music has tended to block teachers from tackling the issue of musical composition with children. For this reason I designed a website which was aimed at ‘musically-challenged’ teachers. The purpose of the website was to encourage such teachers to get their children composing music in the classroom. Rather than taking a Piagetian view of music education where notions of stage development and correctness of pitch were central, I opted for a Vygotskian view which encourages the children to learn for themselves and from each other. This ethnographic case study investigates the experience of one teacher who used the website as a teaching resource. The field work involved interviewing the teacher and collecting a sample of the children's work. In short, I wish to answer the question 'Were my objectives, as stated in the website, attained?'

Key Player
The key player in this exercise was a primary teacher in large senior school in Co. Dublin. There are 800 children in this mixed school with six classes in each year. This teacher taught a third class of thirty children. She was an ideal candidate for this case study as she has no specialist musical training. However, she loves music and is very keen to provide her class with a positive musical experience. Below is a relevant extract from my interview with her where I ask her about her teaching of music.

MURPHY: How would you describe your own musical expertise?

TEACHER: Very limited, but I love music and I know when something is off key. But I still want to teach them music and I have enlisted the help of other children in the school. When I was doing the Christmas carols, I got older children to come in and help them. The kids who know how to do it teach the other ones. I known if they aren’t doing it right, but I ask them to check with the person beside them.

Clearly this teacher has promoted peer learning in her classroom, a factor which was to prove vital in the successful implementation of my lesson plans.

I also asked her how she felt about using computers.

MURPHY: How comfortable are you with computers?

TEACHER: I don’t know how comfortable I would be taking the class, but I can go through the software programmes.

MURPHY: Apart from software what else would you see computers as useful for?

TEACHER: I would see use for them to put their finished product onto the computer and print it out and display it, and to use the spell check. All the children have computers at home and they know the workings of it already.

Clearly, this is a teacher who believes in allowing the children to actively participate in constructing their own knowledge. In this regard, she was an ideal candidate for this case study.

Audit of learning environment
The school has a very positive attitude to teaching ICTs. There is no computer in the . teacher’s classroom. At present the school has a computer room with 30 multimedia computers. This room is administered full time by one teacher who takes each class for an hour per week. According to the teacher, ICTs have proven very positive with children who have behavioural difficulties, and with non nationals. Below is a short extract from my interview with the teacher where I ask her about bringing her children to the computer room and working alongside the computer teacher.

MURPHY: How do you feel about taking your class to the computer room with another teacher in charge of the room?

TEACHER: I like it because I go with them and I do the work with them going through the various stages of the software programmes. I find it good because he’s there and he’s generally in charge of the class and he looks after things if they go wrong, as they do, and I stay with the children and keep order.

Learners
The learners were thirty third-class pupils. Their musical experience included playing the recorder and singing. They had never composed music prior to these lessons. Until the teacher did this class, I was unsure if a third class would be too young for composition. I had only tried it with sixth class prior to that. However, as this case study shows, these lessons are possible to do with younger children where the teacher has successful classroom management skills.

The lessons are firmly rooted in the revised Primary School Curriculum (Government of Ireland, 1999). The music curriculum specifies three strands, Performing, Listening and Responding, and Composition. It is doubtful that many teachers, including the teacher, would engage with the composition strand in the normal course of events. Thus, these lessons represent a new departure the teacher and pupils alike.

Methodology
As clearly stated in the website, the prime learning methodology is that of collaborate constructivism which is firmly rooted in Vygotskian principles. The children were familiar with group work under the teacher’s normal methodology. Experience in group work is, I believe, an important prerequisite in the successful implementation of these lessons. The first time the teacher conducted these lessons she divided her class into groups of six children whence they used the worksheets. The second time she did it, she used the whole class as a group and recorded their ideas on the blackboard. This was because she wanted the children to experiment with different sounds on the recorder. This was a very productive departure from the methodology as outlined in the website. As she said during the interview 'I personally felt that teaching the class all together would be better? The class as a whole were able to comment on the ideas and they wanted to perfect it, and to do it again and again. I have chosen to quote from the interview so to give more information on the learning methodology employed by the teacher and her interaction with the pupils.

MURPHY: How would describe the learning that took place?

TEACHER: I think the children themselves were amazed at the learning that took place. They didn’t think that there would be an end product. They were a bit intimidated by composing music even though some of them were musicians. They found it hard to jump out of the rigidity of playing music with a sheet in front of them to taking on board the idea of composing their own music. They were definitely apprehensive about it.

I also questioned the teacher about her usage of the website.

MURPHY: Did the children realise that you got these ideas from the computer? TEACHER: No

MURPHY: If you had you a computer in the classroom how would it have made a difference?

TEACHER: I would have got some of the bright sparks to print it off. Instead I got my husband to print them off at home.

MURPHY: I didn’t foresee that you would print off the whole website, only the worksheets. Why did you do that?

TEACHER: I would print if off because I’m not computer literate. I would like something concrete in writing in front of me

MURPHY: As you became familiar with the resources on the website, were there any other resources that you felt would be useful?

TEACHER: When the children were first confronted with the idea of composing music, maybe at that point if I said to them ‘This is what other children did. This is how they responded to it’ It would be good if I had something to play them by other children.

MURPHY: Is it the case that you would send the children to the computer to download and listen to them before composing

TEACHER: I wouldn’t see why not and the children would love that.

MURPHY: What more content would you have wanted on the website?

TEACHER: I need an A-Z. Somebody with little or no musical expertise in terms of knowing the sounds that instruments are capable of making would rely heavily on illustrated prompts from the website.

MURPHY: How do you imagine that would work?

TEACHER: The examples in the curriculum book were ‘wind and rain and thunder’ I would not have known what to use, and seeing examples would have helped me imagine what other sounds would have used.

After implementing the lessons, the teacher recorded the children's composition on the school’s multimedia PC and emailed me a copy.

Conclusion and discussion
In all, this teacher fits the profile of the teacher at whom my website was aimed. Her attitude is one of using ICTs as a tool for learning, rather than teaching computers as a subject. Moreover, she clearly believes in allowing her pupils to teach each other using peer tutoring and cross-age tutoring. The essential qualification for successful use of the website is good classroom management skills rather than musical expertise and advanced computer skills. When she met difficulties with using the computers she was willing to enlist the help of other staff members or the children.

There were a number of benefits for the teacher in this whole exercise. One was the increased familiarity and competence with the computer applications i.e. accessing and downloading web materials, using the sound recorder and emailing sound files. She also commented that she would be able to apply her newfound skills to other subject areas such as using the Microsoft Sound Recorder to record the children's reading in English and Irish.

I too learned a number of lessons from this case study. I was obviously too focused on the use of the website as an online resource to think of creating a printable version of the whole site. I did provide printable worksheets, but I missed the rather obvious need to created a printable version of the whole site. As it transpired, it printed off very well. However, that is a matter of chance rather than design.

One of the key questions in the use of ICTs in education is ‘What is the advantage of ICT over other media, such as books, for transmitting information and promoting learning? As emerged in this case study, one advantage of having the lessons in an online form is that I can easily change them in response to the needs of teachers. Furthermore, I can supplement them with musical examples and I can also have other samples of children’s work which can act as an inspiration to other pupils. Thus the notion of collaborative work is extended beyond the scope of the classroom to other classrooms. The internet also provides an audience for the children’s work. This is probably best done where a formal link has been established between schools as it is only in this case that one is assured of an audience. Just placing material on a website is not the same as providing an audience for the children’s work.

In conclusion, it is worth remembering that in developing such digital learning tools it is vital that the designer constantly subject his/her products to real-life situations. Otherwise ‘electronic learning’ becomes irrelevant and counterproductive.

Appendix I

Three sources on how to evaluate case studies
The following three sources provide theoretical frameworks which I have found useful in evaluating case studies.

1. Dianne Novak-Aitken, 'Ethnographic Research in Technology and Teacher Education', in H.C. Waxman & g. W. Bright (Eds.) Approaches to Research on Technology and Teacher Education. (SITE Monograph Series No.1, 1993), pp. 91-100.

This document identifies the anthropological issues at the heart of ethnographic research, and explores the different analytical techniques that are pertinent to this type of field work.

2. Bridget Somekh, 'Classroom investigations: Exploring and evaluating how IT can support learning.', in B. Somekh and N.E. Davis (Eds.), Using IT effectively in teaching and learning: Studies of pre-service and in-service teacher education, (Routledge, 1997), pp. 114-126.

This a powerful argument for implementing 'action research' as a method of data collection in educational research.

3. Geoffrey Underwood & Jean Underwood, 'Evaluating the educational impact of information technology on teaching and learning', in Underwood J. & Brown J. (eds.), Integrated Learning systems: Potential into practice. (Oxford, 1997), pp. 30-38.

This article critiques various traditions of research in education.

Appendix II

A brief survey of two other case studies
In preparing this case study I found the following two case studies to be very useful in providing a practical frame of reference for my own work.

1. Journal of Information Technology in Teacher Education 7(1) "Six Case Studies of Information Technology-Assisted Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in England" Tearle, P, Davis N (1998) http://www.triangle.co.uk/jit/07-01/tearle.pdf

This is a very insightful document as it identifies how ICTs have been implemented across a number of disciplines in six different HE institutions. It takes account of the nature and needs of the institutions concerned and identifies the higher-order thinking skills which were facilitated by ICTs. It considers the role of ICTs in the management of change and professional development. It also highlights the role which case studies have in policy formation.

2. OECD/CERI Schooling for Tomorrow Methodology for Case Studies of Organisational Change: Version 12-21 June 2000 http://bert.eds.udel.edu/oecd/cases/casesframe.html

This document focuses on how the introduction of ICTs in the educational environment relates to educational innovation in OECD countries. This is a complex and necessary area of research as educational reforms currently under way in many countries are running in parallel with the increased use of ICTs. The crux is to identify the relationship between the two. This document examines all the significant parameters necessary for such a study e.g. innovation, effectiveness, educational leadership. Detailed recommendations are made on how to carry out case studies, and the document foregrounds the need to be aware of the role of rival hypothesis in formulating such studies.

Appendix III

Based on my previous research the following four links complement my own website and the work conducted in this case study.

1. The Faust Project Collaborative Internet Music Composition project was a very ambitious collaborative composition using the world wide web technology. http://www.harmony-central.com/Newp/1998/Faust.html

2. The Boston Music Education Collaborative is a partnership of the Boston Public Schools; New England Conservatory; the internationally renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra; and WGBH Educational Foundation.

http://www.newenglandconservatory.edu/collaborative/bostonmusic.html

3. The International Society for Music Education promotes music education in over 60 countries. http://www.isme.org/

4. The Annotated Bibliography of Music Education and Creative Thinking in Music is a superlative resource of music educators. http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~webster/createbib.html