A proposal has been formulated suggesting practical ways of integrating music within the primary schools sector. The proposal's groundbreaking novelty is that it does not require an exponential increase in resources, or extended schooling hours, but a practical syllabus which can be delivered by unspecialised teachers in an enjoyable yet structured manner.
A non-specialist music syllabus has been devised in an attempt to address the musical deficiency within the local mainstream education. The innovative, non-specialist music syllabus provides a wide range of strategies for the early childhood years (Years 1 to 3). At all times the National Minimum Curriculum's ideals for music, together with the current music specialist syllabus were evaluated as a basis for ideas, thus improving upon the guidelines already set.
The overall objective of the syllabus is to provide practical, helpful and enjoyable ideas on how to teach music and to convince all teachers that they are capable of contributing a great deal towards the children's learning with the skills they already have, even if they aren't confident in these skills.
The most important attitudes addressed throughout this syllabus are that students develop skills, knowledge and positive attitudes through music activities by means of effective learning and teaching.
Founded on the music specialist Maltese syllabus, the non-specialist music syllabus facilitates the delivery of performance, creativity (composing) and listening and appraising in the classroom within a mainstream setting. At the same time, the non-specialist syllabus could be synergised with the peripatetic music teaching programme to consolidate the subject.
Sample lesson plans have been tested in schools with encouraging results, including suggestions by various teachers to present the proposal to the Education Division. The lesson plans were accompanied by a CD containing sample songs, presentations and ideas for realisation.
The proposal is based on current research and an analysis of international literature. Moreover, the specialist syllabi of Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Cyprus and Italy were consulted. Apart from delving into the various syllabi, a survey among teachers was conducted and the responses were taken into consideration, especially their personal music ability and propensity. The syllabus was devised following careful scrutiny of the results obtained from questionnaires.
All the surveyed respondents deemed the lesson plans easy to implement. This indicates that the surveryed teachers' level of musical knowledge was sufficient to satisfy the implementation criteria. The only tool a teacher would need to employ is the love of music, instinctive pleasure and the motivation to rise up to a new challenge.
Music is the primary language with which one communicates from the earliest stages in life. Young children lacking speech are still capable of conceiving sounds, and their moods are stimulated. Responses are clearly visible from a tender age. Through songs and lullabies, music stimulus can be seen as a stepping milestone to one's foundation for learning and connecting to life itself.
In this era characterised by a strong emphasis on academic achievements, and man's quest for knowledge, music learning within Maltese classrooms has still not attracted the priority it deserves. The definition of 'intelligence' has evolved and in this day and age, it has taken a wider meaning than mere logical and linguistic aptitude, along with some variants of the two.
The Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory suggested by Howard Gardner and embraced by many educators over the past couple of decades, sheds more light on gray matter, and identifies eight core criteria, namely bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, naturalistic, intrapersonal, spatial and musical. Several schools promote MI as a pedagogy, and numerous teachers incorporate some or all of the theory into their methodology.
It is now widely recognised that the greatest brain ever was that of Leonardo da Vinci, who stood out from his contemporaries for his unmatched ability to develop his left and right parts of the brain to unprecedented levels.
The proposal focuses on the significance of one intelligence avenue - music - and how the primary school curriculum should be enhanced to integrate this domain within a holistic educational framework, particularly in the primary school sector. It is now being internationally acknowledged from studies including The Music Education National Conference (MENC), that children benefit intellectually in the broadest sense from all aspects of music.
The history of music education in Malta has seen several initiatives aimed at addressing musical curricular reform; However, we have to go back several decades to reacquaint ourselves with them. The non-specialist field to teach music through a specially contrived syllabus has never been investigated and/or attempted to be launched neither within our local settings nor internationally. The current NMC maintains that during children's' schooling years, one lesson a week in expressive arts (which includes all subjects from drama, art, dance, and music) is compulsory. However, no specific mandate compels the teaching of music at all levels in local schools. Furthermore, music is not listed as a regular subject within a primary school setting.
In the NMC section relating to development of enhanced skills, knowledge and attitudes linked to the basic subjects, the only indirect reference to music is creative expression, whereas all other academic and non-academic subjects including sport, technology and media education were deemed to deserve a mention.
Flipping through the NMC, the only reference to music as a media for teacher's instruction is in objective three. Once again, this relates to the development of a sense of identity through creative expression. Listed under the knowledge/information segment one finds among many other methods the importance of our country's history of art, architecture and music, but no suggestion whatsoever through the skills and the attitudes segments is made.
Even 'Tomorrow's Schools', a document compiled by various Maltese educators to enhance the NMC, also seems to oversee this vital subject from the curriculum definition. It discusses the possible flaws of the NMC but fails to propose any change in the creative expressions teaching, or underline their importance and relevance.
Now, if the NMC falls short of portraying the significance of music, how is a classroom teacher going to find the strength and courage to adopt teaching such a subject in his/her own classroom? Together with the students, teachers are victims of strict academic subject teaching which stifles also their innate creativity and tendency for originality.
A crucial component for successful delivery of music teaching is the teachers' motivation and confidence, and thus the programme should primarily appeal to the classroom teachers as it is they who instil motivation in the pupils. Although many teachers graduate from schools of education without any background in music, if we accept the principle that a child cannot be denied any form of education, and commit to this, the challenge will be surmounted. Along with educators' commitment and a structured syllabus, the implementation of the proposal needs the support of the directorate for educational services.