In New South Wales education, music is a mandated primary school subject incorporated in the key learning area of Creative Arts. In secondary education, music is typically a mandatory Stage 4 subject and an elective subject choice in Stages 5 and 6. School music syllabuses include singing as a performance experience. The methodology and appropriateness of teaching children and adolescents to sing are issues expressed in the literature. Research and scientific based understanding of the voice clearly indicate that care should be taken when teaching singing to developing voices. These reasons, together with the presumption that all students will sing at some stage during their schooling, invoke the primary research questions of “who teaches school singing?”, “what types of school singing are taught?”, “how is school singing taught?” and “why is school singing taught?”. Through an investigation and analysis of teacher perspectives, this study addresses these questions in relation to teaching singing in Sydney government schools. The research is comprised of two parts. Part 1 was a broad-based questionnaire approach that generated qualitative and quantitative data. By encompassing primary and secondary classroom and/or choir teachers (127 respondents), school singing within a continuum of learning was investigated. Part 2 extended the format and focus of Part 1 by undertaking qualitative in-depth interviews of teachers (10 participants) sampled to investigate a range of key issues and school singing cultures. The study found that school singing at primary level was predominantly taught by generalist classroom teachers. A range of primary specialist teachers - dedicated music and/or choir specialist teachers, designated music and/or singing specialist teachers and dedicated performing arts specialist teachers – was identified as also teaching school singing activities. Secondary classroom music teachers were those found to teach, either solely or in conjunction with singing tutors, secondary school singing. The study determined that school singing was an activity occurring in conjunction with music syllabuses (syllabus singing), in relation to other syllabuses (co-syllabus singing) and irrespective of syllabus connections (non-syllabus singing). In addition, ancillary syllabus singing linked singing activities occurring outside the music classroom to syllabus singing within the music classroom. Co-syllabus singing was identified as being either thematic (illustrating a topic area) or supplementary (reinforcing learning in a non-musical area). In addition to defining the types of school singing in relation to both primary and secondary syllabuses, there was evidence of a dichotomy in school singing between teaching singing (formal singing) and the teaching of, or inclusion of, singing activities (informal singing). Determining whether students were taught a song or taught how to sing (it) in Sydney government schools, formed one of the major areas of impetus and focus for the study. After identifying 19 components present in respondent data at elemental or proficient levels, comparison and inclusion rates of teaching components were used to determine five levels of respondent teaching approaches - sing-along, song, song dominant, functional and developmental. Descriptive statistics and univariate statistical analysis of components revealed that component inclusion increased as the level of teaching approach increased. Independent-sample t-tests showed that there were significant differences between approaches to teaching school singing and the types of teachers who teach school singing (for example between specialist/non-specialist teachers). Contributory factors of school singing were identified as support for school singing, objectives of school singing, aptitude for school singing and constraints that restricted school singing. The types of school singing found their origins in the purposes of the singing activities. In some cases, the school culture also determined the types and purposes of school singing. Where school singing was established within the school culture, singing activities were reported as being well supported and the school culture was such that it encouraged or even enabled singing activities to occur. Conclusions drawn from the research findings have implications for the pre-service and in-service training of teachers, for those responsible for school singing activities and for those writing curriculum, curriculum related documents and teaching resources. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/211381 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Hughes, D., University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Communication Arts |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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