‘Against all (well, many!) odds’. The implementation of dynamic-interactive guided study modules for music education courses at colleges of education

Abstract

The Music Department at a College of Education in Kwa-Zulu Natal has experimented over approximately the past five years with possible solutions to the demand for modularisation. A modular system based on an independent personal interpretation of our new National Qualifications Framework (NQF) requirements has been designed which is allowing the recommendations of the NQF to ‘happen’. It seeks to empower students to be valued for their own talents and interests and to reach their own potential at their own pace and in their own way. Simultaneously, the modules seek to promote holistic music education, although many modules are essentially reductionist. The modules are also designed according to the broad cross-curricular outcomes which underpin the Constitution and which have been adopted by SAQA (the South African Qualifications Authority). Specific outcomes established for the Arts and Culture Learning Area have also been taken into consideration in the overall design of the modules. Greater inclusivity is stressed as opposed to any form of elitism.In presenting considerations and advantages of modularisation and providing the steps followed in implementing such a system at a South African College of Education the paper seeks to encourage tertiary lecturers facing similar odds to reconsider the relevance and appropriateness of modularisation.