Current Music Education Research Articles

Develop a curriculum for first-year students at Aksu vocational and technical college’s school of humanities and arts, focusing on teaching Chinese folk songs

This research investigates the integration of Chinese folk songs into the curriculum at Aksu Vocational and Technical College, situated in the culturally diverse Aksu region of Xinjiang, China. This study identifies significant gaps in current music education methods, particularly the disconnect between theoretical learning and practical application, which hinders students’ ability to engage deeply with the material and develop employable skills. Employing a mixed-methods research design, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to develop, implement, and evaluate a teaching package specifically designed for first-year students. The package aimed to enhance students' understanding and appreciation of Chinese folk music, thereby improving their cultural competence and engagement with the academic content. The findings suggest that the new curriculum significantly boosted the students' knowledge of and connection to folk music traditions. It also facilitated a better understanding of the music’s historical, cultural, and social contexts. Moreover, the teaching package fostered essential skills in cultural awareness and academic involvement, contributing effectively to vocational music education in a multi-ethnic setting. This approach not only bridges the gap between theory and practice but also enriches the students’ educational experience by embedding cultural appreciation into the learning process, making a substantial contribution to the field of music education.

Digital Musical Instruments in Special Educational Needs Schools: Requirements from the Music Teachers’ Perspective and the Status Quo in Germany

Digital musical instruments (DMIs) offer the possibility to create barrier-free access to active music-making and to unique sound aesthetics for a broad group of people, including those who experience disabling barriers to access when using traditional acoustic musical instruments. However, current music education research focuses primarily on app-based DMIs. Although these devices have numerous advantages, such as ubiquitous availability and flexibility, they may be experienced as disabling by people with severe cognitive or complex disabilities. Thus, they only partially exploit the potential of DMIs for special educational needs (SEN) music practices, which we outline in this article. However, given that no comprehensive studies have yet been conducted on the use of DMIs in SEN schools, the actual motives and barriers for SEN school teachers to employ different types of DMIs in class are largely unknown. To address this research gap, we present the results of a quantitative survey covering all SEN schools in 12 of Germany's 16 federal states. We surveyed the status quo of DMI use in SEN schools and the perceived potential of DMIs and DMI-related information needs from the music teachers’ perspective. Our findings demonstrate that DMIs are only rarely used in Germany, with the exception of established standard DMIs such as keyboards and music apps. Unfortunately, accessible DMIs (ADMIs) are hardly used. Related to the rare use of DMIs in SEN schools, we also identified a lack of domain-specific knowledge among music teachers and concluded that there was a need to develop DMIs specifically designed for use in classroom education. Finally, we discuss the potential of using open-source DMI technology as well as the importance of identifying music teachers’ attitudes during DMI development.

Reforma muzykal'nogo obrazovaniya v universitetah Kitaya c pozicii bazovoj gramotnosti

The article first analyzes the significance of the curriculum reform of music education in universities under the guidance of core literacy, analyzes the demands of curriculum reform, and then expounds the problems existing in the current music education curriculum in universities, and puts forward reform measures, aiming at perfecting the music education curriculum in universities and promoting the good growth of students.

크리스토퍼 스몰(Christopher Small)의 “뮤지킹(Musicking)”과 음악교육의 방향성

Recently, as the importance of the relationship between music and people, and between people who mediate music and society has been on the rise in music education, this study reflects on current music education based on Musicking(1998) written by Christopher Small and its follow-up studies. To discuss this study, the musicking was redefined by comparing the musicking of Christopher Small with musicing of David J. Elliot, and the direction of music education was suggested based on musicking of Small. Small stressed on the concept of experiences to focus on the musical behaviors while the musicing of Elliot was concentrated on the musical experiences which is “doing something.” Even though the fields of life, society, and living experience in music education have been emphasized, it is still necessary to look back on whether the current music education is just more focused on the result or efficiency of education, or life has a gap with music. Thus, the significance of this study is redefinition of the significance of music in modern society and suggestion for the direction of current music education.

A survey research study of music education faculty: Demographics as related to indicators of job satisfaction and stress

This study examined demographic information for current music education faculty ( N = 136), the factors that seem to influence music education faculty members’ levels of job satisfaction and primary stressors, also by institution type. Simultaneous multiple regression revealed that academic autonomy, collegial support, sleep, parental responsibilities, and certainties of the tenure process affect music education faculty members’ reported levels of job satisfaction and stress. Mean job satisfaction and stress scores for each group by Carnegie institution types were compared using a one-way ANOVA. Significant differences in stress scores between groups suggested that the larger institution group (R1) did not report feeling more stressed about professional responsibilities than the smaller institution group (M1). Analyses of open-ended questions also reinforced the notion that the COVID-19 pandemic increased flexibilities in work and parental responsibilities leading to lower stress levels.

The Intervention of Music Education on Students’ Mental Health Based on Fuzzy Computing

Music is an important way for people to express and communicate their thoughts and feelings. It not only has the functions of cultivating sentiment, developing intelligence, and promoting personality development but also has an energetic function on the spiritual fitness of pupils. As an important part of quality education in schools, music education has become a pioneer in the implementation of psychological intervention for students. Music education can cultivate sentiment and lively and optimistic mood by emotional images conveyed through various music and has a special role that cannot be replaced by other disciplines. However, the current music education in schools only focuses on the dissemination of music knowledge and there is no research on which type of music can effectively interfere with students’ mental health. In order to be able to choose music that is effective for students’ mental health intervention in music education, this paper will study the intervention research of music education on students’ mental health based on fuzzy computing. This paper extracts the musical features such as average pitch, average pitch intensity, melody direction, pitch stability value, rhythm intensity, and beat, uses fuzzy computing to classify music, determines which types of music can improve students’ mental health, and uses experiments to verify the validity of this research. The consequences of the research show that choosing effective music to intervene in students’ mental health can greatly improve students’ mental health problems. The scores of students’ psychological status after the intervention are 0.73 times of those before the intervention. It demonstrates the validity of the study.

Construction of a Music Education Model Based on Internet Big Data

Based on the formal industry 4.0 core that information technology promotes the upgrading of all industries, Internet big data has gradually become a hot spot of social development at present. Based on it, it has been widely applied in all industries and achieved good results. Music education is aesthetic education, is one of the key to inspire people to be good and true; because China is a country of culture and music, and has a high status in the history of world music, the advanced information technology and the traditional music education promote the national music education development, the quality of education, and its significance. This paper takes the construction of the music education model in the context of Internet big data as the research object. Firstly, it summarizes the development process and status quo of the Internet, big data, and music education and points out the shortcomings of the current music education. Secondly, combined with the current situation of the modern music education, in-depth analysis of the importance of music development based on Internet big data takes the inheritance of traditional music development as an example. Then, it analyzes the application form of Internet education, the educational model changed by Internet big data, the opportunities of Internet big data education, and the model construction of future music community development. This study is a combined study of the application of advanced technology to traditional education, which contributes to the updating and iterative development of the music education model and the implementation of quality-oriented education in China and also provides reference for the application of Internet big data to the upgrading of other traditional industries.

Inheritance and Innovation of National Music Culture in Music Education

In the context of globalization, national music culture has become the focus of academic circles. How to protect, inherit and innovate the excellent national music culture is an important problem facing the current music education theory and practice research. This study argues that music education needs to keep a proper balance between “globalization” and “localization”, reasonably use the teaching materials of national music, and maintain the “root” and “uniqueness” of national culture, so as to better inherit and innovate national music culture. Thus, in this study, based on the summary of the concept of national music, the integrated teaching method of “teaching-practice-scientific research” is put forward from the perspective of inheritance, and the idea of integrating international music teaching method and national music culture is proposed from the perspective of innovation.

Analysis of Music Teaching in Basic Education Integrating Scientific Computing Visualization and Computer Music Technology

In the current music education, the music teaching method is too simple, boring, relatively backward, unable to attract the attention of the students, and the students gradually lose their interest in music courses. In basic education, music, as a highly practical subject, must create a good classroom atmosphere, make the classroom active, and enable students to better experience music, enjoy music, and like music. Therefore, in order to change this situation, this paper, based on scientific computing visualization, studies the application of computer music technology in basic education music teaching, and proposes a related computing method based on scientific computing visualization-image segmentation method. This review compares the spectrum extraction accuracy between the improved algorithm and the two traditional algorithms and finds that the average accuracy of the improved algorithm is 90.88%. It can be seen that the method proposed in this review is more suitable for the study of computer music technology in basic education music teaching. Applied research and most students are more interested in music teaching combined with computer music technology, so learning music teaching combined with computer music technology is very necessary. The development of computer music technology is closely related to the development of modern information technology.

On "Teaching" and "Learning" of Music Education in Senior High School

With the improvement of people's life quality in China, people pay more and more attention to the quality of education. The relevant departments have carried out the new curriculum reform and applied modern technology to the development of the education industry, thus improving the teaching efficiency of the education industry in China. The significance of music classroom teaching in senior high school lies in showing a broader development space for students and teachers, respecting the law of physical and mental development of senior high school students, and choosing teaching contents and methods suitable for each student to meet the music learning needs of different students, so as to stimulate their interest and creation in music learning, lay a foundation for the lifelong development of each senior high school student's cultural accomplishment, and then promote the all-round and harmonious development of students' personality. This topic is based on the theory of music education philosophy, post-modern music pedagogy, music education psychology, music aesthetic psychology and other knowledge, analyzes the problems existing in the current music education and teaching in Chinese schools, expounds the feasibility and necessity of implementing the diversified application of pop songs in high school music classes, and discusses the ways and methods of implementing the diversified application of pop songs. This paper discusses the educational function of applying pop songs to music classroom teaching and the basic requirements for teachers.

Technological competence of future music teachers: diagnostic and formative methods

The study dwells upon the problem of technological competence of future music teachers, which is relevant to the current music and music-pedagogical education process in Ukraine and other countries. The objective of the article is to cover the results of the experimental research on methods of diagnosis and formation of future music teachers’ technological competence. As a matter of fact, with the purpose of studying the problem, the following scientific research methods have been applied: a set of theoretical, diagnostic, mathematical statistics methods. The essence of the concept of "technological competence" is revealed, which is an integral component of professional competence of a modern music teacher. The structure of the studied phenomenon is determined, which consists of the following components: axiological and cultural, epistemological and emotional; technological and operational; creative and professional. Moreover, the four groups of criteria are substantiated according: value-cultural, cognitive-emotional, technological-operational and creative-professional. Finally, a diagnostic experiment was carried out, in the process of which special diagnostic methods were used of the formative experiment lies in the gradual formation of the technological culture of future teachers-musicians according to the developed author's technique, which includes four pedagogical conditions and a set of interrelated methods.

Diverse Cultural Thought In The European Context Through Music Collaboration Networks

Networking in current music education and models, projects and platforms are a means for recovering the importance of music education as a part of artistic education. Music education has value in itself, both in the international and European context, not only from an instrumental or interdisciplinary perspective, but also as a critical reflection on reality, forming an integral part of society which cannot be removed. Art, due to its non-instrumental nature, constitutes a source of living standards and allows the development of the human sensibility which contributes to the acquisition of skills related with perception, and which make up valuable tools for the cognitive process of the science. Networking projects through music education contribute to diverse cultural thought, which places value on European cultural heterogeneity through music, promotes cultural integration and diversity of tastes beyond prevailing and homogenising musical trends.

Language, Music, and Revitalizing Indigeneity: Effecting Cultural Restoration and Ecological Balance via Music Education

In this paper, we explore challenges in conveying the culturally constructed meanings of local Indigenous musics and the worldviews they manifest to students in K-12 school music classes, when foundational aspects of the English language, historical and current discourse, and English language habits function to thwart the transmission of those meanings. We recount how, in settler colonial societies in North America, speakers of the dominant English language have historically misrepresented, discredited, and obscured cultural meanings that inhere in local Indigenous musics. First, we examine three ways in which the use of English has distorted the cultural meanings of those musics. Next, we explain how historical discourses in English have intentionally undervalued or discredited the values intrinsic to those musics, also describing how some current music education discourse in English might work against the embedding of Indigenous meanings in school music education settings. We then consider additional factors distinguishing Indigenous languages from European languages (especially English) to show how a people’s “language habits” influence their perception of and thus their relationship with their natural environment. We conclude by considering the role of music education in revitalizing local Indigenous languages and musics and advancing the cultural values of their originating communities.

Discussion on Cultural Strategy and World’s Pluralistic Music Education

Culture is characterized by diversity. In the cultural strategy, the development of culture must be restricted by certain factors, and the reason for this restriction is that the development of culture must conform to the development trend of society. Therefore, the current music education should be implemented from the perspectives of multiculture and cultural strategies to reflect the value and significance of music education.

Application of SVGA video real-time transmission technology in music education information communication

The current music education information has certain information loss in the real-time transmission process, which leads to poor educational effect. The research content of this thesis is based on FPGA video image acquisition and processing system. At the same time, this research mainly uses FPGA as the platform to realize and simulate video acquisition, transformation, storage, display and transmission. This research solves the problem of long-distance real-time transmission of high-definition video stream, and in order to improve the subjective quality of the recovered video at the receiving end, the algorithm processing is added to reduce the blockiness phenomenon in the video displayed at the receiving end. Finally, the validation test was designed to validate the research perspective. The experimental results show that the system works stably and realizes the functions of video image acquisition, conversion, display and transmission, and achieves the design goal. However, due to time constraints and other conditions, the entire design needs further improvement, so that it can provide a basis for the development of subsequent music education information communication technology.

How children listen: multimodality and its implications for K-12 music education and music teacher education

ABSTRACT Almost twenty years ago, the question of ‘How popular musicians learn’ (Green, [2002]. How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education. Hants, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited) catalyzed a paradigm shift in music education and music teacher education bringing informal teaching and learning strategies to the fore. In this article, the author argues that a new paradigm-shifting question requires attention: ‘How children listen’. This article examines the multimodal nature of children’s popular music listening. It then explores the implications of such listening engagements for music teacher education. In a series of three sessions, preservice music education students explored the multimodal aspects of popular videos and designed pedagogical frameworks for ‘multimodal music learning’ that mirror young children’s contemporary listening processes. Findings suggest that young preservice teachers, having grown up with digital technology, are uniquely positioned to facilitate multimodal pedagogies of popular music. The author argues that current music teacher education does not sufficiently build on the digital literacies and affinities of students and suggests ways that music teacher education programs may address this gap.

The Phenomenon of Musical Art in the Education of Individuals

Phenomenon of musical art considered as one of the conditions needed to create artistic and aesthetic communication that nurtures the growth of a spiritual, moral and harmonious personality. This article focusses on finding new bases for music education. It outlines current music education and points out difficulties that are caused by rapid changes in music culture. Due to these changes, music curriculum must find new starting points. We explored and compared the main ideas about music education in its historical development. We conclude that music education today should be built on music making and listening. It can no longer be based on traditional frameworks because they are not familiar to individuals today. Music education should be based on research, and new ways of teaching and learning musical skills and knowledge should guide its practice.

An evaluation of music education in Northern Cyprus based on teacher opinions and documents

This study is a qualitative and descriptive research which was conducted using scanning model with the purpose of displaying music education in Northern Cyprus in the light of documents and determining the opinions of teachers on the music education in the country. In this study, the general objective of education in Northern Cyprus, the general structure of education system, Ministry of National Education Council minutes, government programmes and activity reports of Ministry of National Education since 1982 were examined and were displayed by relating them with teacher opinions on the current music education in Northern Cyprus and music education curricula. Among the four councils which were held since 1982, no documents were obtained on the council held in 1985; therefore the study was limited with 1995–2015 period. As regards the obtained findings, the decisions on music, music education and the concepts of art and culture were grouped separately, and Ministry of National Education activity reports and council decisions were related with the opinions of teachers on music education. As a result, it is observed that in the education councils organized in 1995 and 2005 in Northern Cyprus, no expression are found as regards music, music classes, culture and arts; on the other hand, in the council organized in 2014, more comprehensive topics were discussed and decisions were taken. It is seen that although there are projected items as regards music in Ministry of National Education activity reports, most of them are not put into implementation and/or are not sufficient. When related to the opinions obtained from teachers, it can be seen that teaching programmes are not organized according to the physical conditions of schools but still most teachers provide education according to the curriculum prepared by MEB but MEBD did not direct teachers to on-the-job training activities and monitor them.

Music school and innovations: attitude of instrument subject teachers

The article deals with the attitude of music school teachers (N=367) towards music innovations and their dissemination. This analysis grounds on a significant research of attitudes of music pedagogues working in schools in Lithuania; this research aims at diagnosing how current music education changes/remains unchanged in the context of paradigm change, under the impact of manifestation of professional attitudes of pedagogues. Obtained results of the empirical research provided valuable information on delivered music education and possible innovations in its various fields. Therefore, the present article will present a relevant part of the mentioned research – pedagogues’ attitudes towards innovations selected and suggested by researchers, hypothetically postulating that they are the most lacking in current music education. The research found out that pedagogues were quite favourable towards dissemination of innovations. Education of people with disabilities and training of adults were supported the most, whereas the least approval was expressed towards the change of the assessment system and possibilities for organisation of group learning. Pedagogues treat new disciplines, such as improvisation, ensemble, accompaniment, reading notes, performing music aurally, as important.

Uncommon commonalities: Cosmopolitan ethics as a framework for music education policy analysis

ABSTRACTContemporary American education policy rhetoric is problematic because its authors’ assertions, particularly those about the goals of education, frequently conflict with their implied moral and/or ethical commitments. This philosophical policy analysis uses Appiah's cosmopolitan principles to examine the ethical implications of current education and music education policy discourse and practice. While education policy rhetoric promoting the fulfillment of basic human needs through employment aligns with one aspect of the cosmopolitan principle of universal concern, policy makers’ assertions about unbridled economic competition contradicts cosmopolitans’ concern for all individuals. Contemporary education and music education policies that enable teachers to have freedom in selecting content and instructional practices reinforce the cosmopolitan principle of respect for legitimate difference, but discourse and action emphasizing standardization, including standardized outcomes, conflicts with the cosmopolitanism. Four recommendations are offered: use cosmopolitan ethics as a means of framing agreement or dissatisfaction with contemporary education policies; implement parts of the National Core Music Standards in ways that promote standards without standardization; advocate for the aspects of the Opportunity-To-Learn Standards for Music Instruction; consider how music educators’ day-to-day practices interface with the cosmopolitan ethics.