Strumming your way into Foundation Phase Education
Abstract
Abstract
Most Foundation Phase (FP) students in South Africa arrive at university without having had any formal music training. Music skills must then be acquired in a fraction of one semester as part of a general Life Skills module. Education students in the FP have traditionally been taught to play the piano and/or recorder and/or Orff instruments with a two-fold aim – to be able to teach these instruments to learners and for accompaniment during music activities. The use of a guitar to replace the traditional choices could be beneficial to pre-service educators. The research question is: How suitable is the guitar as an instrument for Foundation Phase (FP) education students? Specific aims are to investigate the suitability, benefits and impact of the guitar in Foundation Phase courses and the guitar learning process. Mixed methods research was done through a pragmatic paradigm. Literature was studied and surveys and interviews were done with FP stakeholders. FP students were monitored during guitar tuition and the outcomes were notated. This research will provide curriculum module developers with a tested musical instrument alternative and programme for generalist educator training. Results of this study show that a guitar is a rational choice for use in FP educator training.
References
Atterbury, B. W. & Silcox, L. 1993. The effect of piano accompaniment on kindergartners’ developmental singing ability. Journal of Research in Music Education 41(1):40-47.
Bartel, L., Cameron, L., Wiggins, J. & Wiggins, R. 2004. Implications of generalist teachers’ self-efficacy related to music. Music Education Entering the 21st Century 85-90.
Bartel, L. R. 1990. Guitar class: A multifaceted approach. Music Educators Journal 77(2):40-45.
CAPS Life Skills Foundation Phase. 2011. http://www.thutong.doe.gov.za/supportformatrics/LifeSkillsCAPSFoundationPhase/tabid/5005/Default.aspx (Accessed on 3 August 2014).
Copeland, K. A. 2010. The guitar as a teaching tool in the elementary general music classroom. https://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?q=Copeland%2C+K.+A.+2010.+The+guitar+as+a+teaching+tool+in+the+elementary+general+music+classroom+.&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5 (Accessed on 26 March 2017)
Creswell, J. W. & Clark, V. L. P. 2005. Principles of qualitative research: Designing a qualitative study. In a Capella University workshop, Washington DC.
De Vries, P. 2011. The first year of teaching in primary school: Where is the place of music? International Journal of Education & the Arts 12(2):2.
Economidou-Stavrou, N. & Telemachou, N. 2006. Preparing future generalist teachers to teach music in primary school: Feedback from practicing teachers in Cyprus. In Proceedings of the 27th World Conference of the International Society for Music Education, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
GITC. 2013. Guitars in the classroom. http://www.guitarsintheclassroom.org/learn-about-us/facts-figures/ (Accessed on 2 October 2014).
Glover, J. & Ward, S. (Eds.). (1993) Teaching music in the primary school: A guide for
primary teachers. New York: Cassell Educational.
Gustafson, G. 1996. Class Guitar in Middle School. Music Educators Journal 83(1):33-38.
Hale, M. R. 1977. An experimental study of the comparative effectiveness of harmonic and melodic accompaniment in singing as it relates to the development of a sense of tonality. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 23-30.
Hedden, D. 2012. An overview of existing research about children’s singing and the implications for teaching children to sing. Applications of Research in Music Education 30(2):52-62.
Heyworth, J. 2011. Jumping through ‘loops’: A reflective study on preparing generalist pre-service teachers to teach music. Issues in Educational Research 21(1):42-64.
Holden, H. & Button, S. 2006. The teaching of music in the primary school by the non-music specialist. British Journal of Music Education 23(1):23-38.
Jansen van Vuuren, E. N. 2010. Subject Music in rural South African schools: challenges and solutions within a comparative context (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pretoria).
Jeanneret, N. 1997. Model for developing pre-service primary teachers’ confidence to teach music. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 37-44.
Kite, T. S. 1994. Using program music for interdisciplinary study. Music Educators Journal 80(5):33.
Koutsoupidou, T. 2010. Initial music training of generalist kindergarten teachers in Greece: What do they ask for and what do they receive? Arts Education Policy Review 111(2): 63-70.
McDonald, D. T., Simons, G. M. & McCoy, C. 1989. Musical growth and development: Birth through six. New York: Schirmer Books.
Morin, F. L. 1994. Beliefs of pre-service and in-service early years/elementary classroom teachers regarding useful music course topics. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED407297.pdf (Accessed on 11 July 2014).
National Policy on minimum requirements for teacher education. Government Gazette. Republic of South Africa Vol. 553 Pretoria, 15 July/Julie 2011 No. 34467 www.gov.za/documents/download.php?f=148017 (Accessed on 3 September 2014).
Peretti, D. 2007. Music Integration Impact Study: AACTE University of California - Google Scholar.http://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?q=Della+Peretti+Music+Integration+Impact+study%3AAACTE+University+of+California&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5 (Accessed on 11 July 2014).
Persellin, D. 2003. Teaching songs to young children: What do music-teacher educators say? General Music Today 17(1):18-27.
Pugh, A. & Pugh, L. 2013. Music in the early years. Routledge. London & New York
Rogers, L., Hallam, S., Creech, A. & Preti, C. 2008. Learning about what constitutes effective training from a pilot programme to improve music education in primary schools. Music Education Research 10(4):485-497.
Silverman, M. J. 2011. Developing and testing the guitar songleading performance scale (GSPS). International Journal of Music Education 29(3):283-293.
Stauffer, S.L., 1985. An investigation of the effects of melodic and harmonic context on the development of singing ability in primary grade children (aural, discrimination) (Doctoral dissertation, Ph. D., University of Michigan). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses).
Stevens-Ballenger, J., Jeanneret, N. and Forrest, D., 2010. Preservice primary music: where to begin? Victorian Journal of Music Education 2010(1), p.36 - 41.
Temmerman, N. 2006. Equipping future arts educators for primary schools of the 21st century: an Australian point of view. International Journal of Music Education 24(3):271-282.
Timmerman, M., & Griffith, C. 1969. Legitimizing the guitar in general music. Music Educators Journal 56(3):75-76.
Vaillancourt, J. 2013. Music teaching at the elementary level: Selecting a song repertoire. The Phenomenon of Singing 7:131-138.
White, J. 2006. Arias of learning: creativity and performativity in Australian teacher education. Cambridge Journal of education 36(3):435-453.
Wright, S. K. 2003. The arts, young children, and learning. Allyn & Bacon, Boston, US.
Copyright (c) 2018 Eurika Naomi Jansen van Vuuren
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
