Approaches to learning

Overview

This section offers ideas and a sense of the variety, depth and level of exploration that can be brought to a music learning program at any level – whole-school, curriculum area, at each year level – or with units or sequences of lessons. Making decisions about the structure of a music learning program is a complex matter. Learning is a continuous and sequential process, enabling the acquisition, development and revisiting of skills and knowledge with increasing depth and complexity.

The case studies in this guide demonstrate that high-quality music learning programs are diverse in their approach and scope. Each of the case-study schools has used a unique set of questions to guide their thinking and make decisions about their music learning program. The common thread is that all of the programs take into account the whole-school curriculum plan, long- and short-term aims and goals, the learning environment and resourcing.

Talk to people about the creation or development of a comprehensive and cohesive music learning program to explore what might be possible. To get things started, you could begin singing in the classroom and listening and responding to music. As Paul Kelly wrote in one of his most popular songs: ‘From little things. big things grow …’.

Julia Reid puts it this way in her chapter on ‘Shower Singing and Other Essentials’ in Education in the Arts – teaching and learning in the contemporary curriculum, (1st edition, 2000):

‘Four principles inform my teaching practice – actually, they inform my life:

• Encouraging and celebrating the self-directed learner
• Modelling the creative process
• Regular, allocated time for reflection

And the most vital principle:

• Bringing the person to the classroom, not just the teacher.’

 

Victorian Curriculum F–10

DET Quality Music Education Framework

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