Week 1... so why not start with a reasonably big question?

I'm afraid I'm running a little behind with this, but better late than never, sorry everyone!  I will be catching up with the other topics ASAP.  So, week 1 of #MFlearn19 arrived and we had our first questions!  In my first proper blog post of the course I'm going to tackle this one:

Is it necessary or important to give students the opportunity to choose to learn music that they like and identify with?

As with any course such as this one, we are encouraged to consider something that you perhaps usually do not even think about on a daily basis, even though we perhaps think that we do!

I think I give my students a fair amount of choice... particularly as they get older (there are lots more choices in Year 9 than in Year 7) - by the end of Year 9, they even get to choose their own project.  This final choice (which is preceded by a "Musical Futures" discreet unit which obviously involves student choice of instrument and music) allows them to choose from lots of options - research, using Sonic Pi or Logic Pro to create/mix music, repeating the MF unit, improving instrumental skills etc., within the different projects they can choose their own piece or style of music.  
Why do I do this?  

• This unit takes place after the final assessment point for Year 9 so I am free to move away from the constraints of our school-derived assessment system - so why not take advantage of this?

• I want to ensure that students are engaged - lots have started to switch off before this point having already taken their options, and out of 300, around 260 won't have picked either GCSE Music or NCFE Music Tech so this group is of vital importance at this point and should not be ignored.  New and more "out there" topics are exciting and get their attention.

• I want this larger group of non KS4 musicians to finish their formal learning in the subject on a high note - with a positive view of music to take forward, maybe even a tiny bit inspired by learning something they didn't think they would.

• It allows me to recognise their age and increased maturity (although the latter of these does vary!).

So this is definitely choice... but actually if I look across the three year KS3 programme we have, the opportunities they are getting to actually choose the music they study is pretty limited.  It's me, as HoD, that has determined that they should learn about Blues, Jazz, Rock n Roll, Minimalism, Film Music, World Music and various other genres which no doubt sit on many curriculums in the UK.

Is this wrong?

No... I don't think it is.  Part of my responsibility when designing the curriculum which is compulsory for all students at my school, is to ensure that they receive a broad curriculum.  In fact, one of my department's formal curriculum aims is:

Students should perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions including the works of the great composers, popular/folk musicians as well as a wide variety of other composers, musicians and performers.

Well, let's consider the other extreme - If I leave all the choices to students then there would be some potential pitfalls which may include:

So 100% teacher choice?

• Students may choose the same/similar types of music all the time.

• Students can't choose something which they don't know about.

• Students may pre-judge a type of music that they know exists based on it's origins, ill-informed perceptions of the music or anything else they do know about it (or think they know) even if they've never actually listened to it. This will therefore affect their choices.

• Student choices may be influenced by peer pressure.

But what are the benefits of student choice?

• Higher levels of student engagement because of their ownership of the topic.

• Choices made that the teacher may not have picked - after all, we too may not always choose types of music for the right reasons (e.g. choices are based on available resources, personal preference, subject knowledge and confidence).

• We can make use of the flipped classroom model.

In conclusion...

As with may things in life I think the answer lies in moderation and balance of course. As teachers, we need to ensure students are introduced to a wide variety of music and to enable learning to happen in a number of different ways. Within this, there is definitely space for student led choices and student led learning

Possible actions
I'm going to look at my current curriculum and see whether there is a way to incorporate choice earlier on in KS3 and how best to do this.

Who am I and why am I here?

In this post, I am going to introduce myself and my reasons for taking part in #MFlearn19 as well as what I hope to gain from it.

I'm a secondary Head of Music in a secondary comprehensive school in the UK.  I've been teaching for 17 years and in my current role for over ten.

We use the Musical Futures approach at my school (and have done for many years) in an isolated unit in Year 9 which works very well and engages students (at a time when many are switching off to classroom music having already decided on their options subjects).

I'm a classically trained musician fitting all the stereotypes of this type of education - 1-1 lessons, grades, GCSE Music, A Level, university etc..  Teaching music in a comprehensive school in an area with a diverse range of backgrounds, cultures, financial situations and other influencing factors means that the musical education I received is vastly different to the one that the majority of my students receive or indeed need and this need is constantly evolving.

I therefore seek to evolve my practice and my department in line with this in order to meet these needs.  This is not an easy thing to admit for two reasons - firstly, this means change and change is always hard especially if it asks you to move away from your comfort zone into areas you don't feel you know much about.  Secondly, this means admitting that at the moment, I don't feel that our current curriculum fully meets some of the needs of the students - and we could do better.  That doesn't mean that I think we are doing a bad job by any means - our curriculum is wide and varied, allows students to make progress, they enjoy it and it helps prepare them for further study - it just means that there are different things we could do.

Like most musicians, I am constantly frustrated by the inaccessibility of music to students who do not have access to private music lessons, expensive instruments or a family culture where music or learning is not valued and encouraged (contrary to what the song says, it's not all about the price tag, there is more to it than that).  Learning a musical instrument in the traditional method (1-1 lessons, own instrument etc.) is the preserve of those students whose parents can both afford and want to provide these for their children.  This means that a large number of students do not get this opportunity.  This is nothing new, it was true when I was at school in the 80s and 90s but my experience is that since the UK's financial crisis of 2008 things have got worse (fewer students taking lessons in the schools I have worked in for example) in addition to changing cultures and interests of young people and their families - social media, computer games, the internet, busier and busier lives.  Add to this a general change in the governmental attitude to music education which has impacted funding (inside and outside of school music education) and schools' willingness to support music and you have a recipe for a reduction in the number of young people who benefit from all that music has to offer them or the quality of what they do receive in musical education.

Secondary schools are often seen as "exam factories" these days - this is enough to make many teachers feel ill when they consider the reasons they became a teacher, especially in a subject such music where most of us consider ourselves to be practitioners of our subject as well as teachers of it.  Becoming a music teacher has far wider aims than just producing advanced performers or composers, many of which relate to the general wellbeing of a young person, such as confidence and happiness - there is, after all, plenty of research to show the benefits of music education (something for a future post!) - we all know that student for whom being a part of the school production or learning to play a three chord song on the ukulele meant more than just the achievement of the activity itself.

So what all of this leads to is our responsibility as music educators. In the majority of UK schools, music is a compulsory subject for the first two or three years of secondary school meaning that we get to do something (maybe only a small something, but something all the same) about this, and for me, this is where Musical Futures and this style of learning can help bridge the gaps of money, family support and interest and provide a different style of learning for those who don't find that the 1-1 method suits even if they do get the opportunity.

So what I do I want to achieve from this course and related development activities?

1. Improve my (and my department's) ability to use the Musical Futures approach in our curriculum which would lead to increased enjoyment, engagement, progress and achievement for students (amongst other things).
2. Explore how to extend this beyond the current, isolated, unit in KS3 and indeed if this is the right thing to do for our students.
3. Consider whether our current curriculum offer meets the needs of the students taking into account a number of different factors including, but not limited to those discussed above.

Indeed, this is a list of aims that may change or increase as the course progresses.  Time will tell.