Relationship between School Music Education and Folk Music Culture (Part 2)

The relationship between school music education and folk music culture was explored with reference to historical details and folklore norms. “To acquire the competence to commit sounds and music in life and society” was added to the overall objectives for music in the 2017 Courses of Study (school curriculum guidelines) for elementary schools. The term “life and society” is difficult to define and the guideline provides no clarification. Music and“ life and society” were originally intimately related. Some teachers’ practices enable their students to consider the roles and/or relationships of music in their lives and society in acquiring competence in performing and listening to music. However, several concepts for music education have been based on“ life and society.” Thus, we should also reflect on the contents of the subject because of the characteristics of music and its relationship with “life and society.” Although the guidelines place importance on music disciplines and deep learning, there is no consideration of the outcome of discipline on music. In conclusion, according to folklore and ethnomusicology, which is the discipline concerning music, life, and society, the definition of music in education should be enlarged to encompass additional contents with the ultimate objective of learning music through a wider view of musical disciplines.本研究はJSPS科研費 JP18K02625の助成を受けたものです

Relationship between Elementary School Music Education and Folk Music Culture

According to the School Education Act, elementary school music education is provided to facilitate children’s happiness and good health. However, a report by the Central Council for Education (2016.11) suggested further improvement of learning about the functions of sounds and music in society to help children build a relationship between sounds and musics. Therefore, the new elementary school curriculum guidelines issued in 2017 included new details about the competence in understanding the role of sounds and musics in our society in the overall music objectives. This study explores the relationship between school music education and folk music culture by referring to historical details and folklore norms. The results suggest that the ways of thinking in folk music culture will provide clues for understanding what music means in society. These essential questions, which approach disciplinary structures, will lead to a curriculum that enables students to approach big concepts in music. Thus, folklore can be an essential basis for music education in schools because the introduction of folk music culture as learning materials instead of teaching materials will help students create a deeper comprehension of the role of musics in society.本研究はJSPS科研費 JP18K02625の助成を受けたものです

A Study on the Specialized Contents Related to the Subject (Music) in Elementary School Teacher Training

This study delves into what should comprise the Specialized Contents Related to the Subject (Music) in elementary school teacher training. The Central Council for Education’s 2015 report, “Improvement in competency of teachers who will carry forward future education in schools,” suggested the following new directions for changes in teacher training: i.e., (1) to enlarge the categories for specialties or to integrate subjects within teacher training courses and (2) to prepare policies to organize the core curricula for teacher training courses. In 2017, Hiroshima University was assigned a project for integral reform of the promotion of teacher development, employment, and training for career advancement. Our team drew up a plan for the core curriculum for the Specialized Contents Related to the Subject (Music) in elementary school teacher training. This study compares this new curriculum with two other plans and examines all curricula from several perspectives. The results show that the standard for the core curriculum subjects has become a double-edged sword. Teacher trainers should refer to this standard in developing their own contents and teaching methods for student teachers

Curriculum development for fostering children’s thinking skills regarding music (IV) : Collaborative Music Making with Music Expressions as Materials

本研究の目的は，児童一人ひとりの自発的な音楽表現を起点として音楽科の特性に応じた思考を発展させ，さまざまな音楽文化に能動的・主体的にかかわっていけるような，音楽科における次世代のカリキュラムの開発を行うことにある。これまでの低学年から中学年を中心とした実践に続き，本年度は，高学年を対象とした３つの授業実践を行った。まず，概念，絵画や図形から得られる視覚的情報など，音楽以外の要素を音楽的表現に結びつける活動を通して，その結びつき方への意識を促した。このことは，表現の方法そのものへの関心を高めると同時に，さまざまな方法を相対的に捉える視点の獲得につながった。次に，ゲーム的なルールを設定して，児童自身の演奏をも含む多様なジャンルの表現を素材とみなしたコラージュ的な表現活動を行った。この体験を通して，児童にとってなじみのない芸術的営みへの接近を促すことができた。その結果，音楽科の特性に応じた思考を育むカリキュラムの開発にあたっては，これまでの研究の成果に加えて，児童自身が協働的な音楽学習過程に創造の方法自体を自ら考案するようなメタ創造力を位置づける重要性が認識された。This study develops a new music curriculum for elementary schools to foster students’ thinking skills regarding music and to broaden the range of their experiences of musical culture. We performed three research practices in the upper grades to consider the sequence of curriculum from the lower grades. In these practices, we encouraged children to appreciate the collaboration between music and extra-musical elements: general concepts, and pictures and forms as the visual information. These activities aroused their interest in the means of expression and led them to acquire the relative frame of reference for various means of expression. We also introduced a collage of different kinds of expressions including children’s performance as its material in a game piece. This helped them to approach unfamiliar artistic practices. In conclusion, we realized that meta-creativity played an important role in the collaborative learning process of music-making, in which children devise the means of creation by themselves

Assistance for Learning Keyboard Instruments in the Elementary School Teacher Training Program

The focus of this research is learning support for those students in elementary school teacher training programs learning to play the keyboard. In teacher training, the piano is regarded as an essential element in the curriculum for elementary education. Applicants for teaching positions are often required to sing while playing the piano or organ, or to play the accompaniment to songs that are compulsory content in elementary schools. However, there are various abilities required for instruction in music classes, and the skills required to play the keyboard in teaching are different from those for casual players. A report by the Central Council for Education (2015) suggests that the content of each subject should be acquired together with the teaching methods in the curriculum of teacher training courses. Therefore, we will examine the scenarios in which a teacher’s skill in playing the keyboard is required, discuss possible obstacles, and suggest some options to improve their learning processes. In addition, we delve into ICT and electronic devices for students who have difficulty practicing by themselves. These measures could allow students to utilize the keyboard as an instructional tool. In acquiring abilities for music instruction with various tools, students should also become conscious of their learning processes so that they can then independently improve their skill level

Development of lesson plans to enable diversity and collaboration: Framing musical activities from the viewpoint of inclusive education

本研究は，インクルーシブな視点に立ち，子どもたちが相互に関わりつながり合う活動を生み出し，多様性と協働を保障する授業を開発することを目的とする。その背景には，多様性のある人それぞれの力が発揮される社会を目指す，インクルーシブ教育システム構築の必要性が存在する。ここでは，編制方式の異なる学級（単式学級・複式学級・特別支援学級）において，困難さの把握と対応，環境の調整を図り，得意な学び方を活かして協働を仕組んだ授業づくりを行った。その結果，事例1 では，特別支援学級に在籍する児童の困難さを捉えつつ意欲を引き出し，各自の製作した手作り楽器を用いて１つの音楽をつくる仕掛けが有効に働いた。事例2 では，第4 学年の児童による掛け声，唱歌の使用，模倣による習得を通して一体感のある学びが有効に機能し，児童自ら和太鼓の表現を生成・変化させていった。事例3 では，複式低学年において，１つの楽器から多様な音色，奏法を発見するための自由な発想と拡散的な思考を促して認め合うことによって，技能習得の苦手意識を乗り越えて，互いの意見を尊重できる学習が実現した。This study aims to develop lessons in which diversity and collaboration are assured through children’s cooperative involvement. Today we should build a system of inclusive education against the background of the social need for all students to exercise their abilities. We framed teaching plans according to children’s difficulties, accommodated their learning environments, and encouraged them to cooperate with each other via their strengths. We then performed activities in different class types: (1) a special needs class for students with diverse disabilities, (2) classes of 4th graders, and (3) a combined class of lower graders in the primary school. We found that (1) creating a piece of music with their own handmade instruments, (2) learning by following others, and the use of kakegoe and shoga, and (3) the opportunity for the creation of students’ own ideas for playing an instrument, reduced the students’ difficulties and helped them to accept each other

The Development of Lesson Plans to Enable Diversity and Collaboration (II): Focusing on Ways to Elicit Unique Modes of Expression of Each Student

In this study, the authors aimed to develop lessons in which diversity and collaboration were ensured through children's cooperative involvement in a special class for students with intellectual disabilities. To bring out unique modes of expression for each student, the authors framed two practices and analyzed, as a lesson study, children's activities and the teacher's support in an unformulated communicative learning process. The authors found three key results. First, children's expressions deepen through a combination of both imitation and exploration, and collaboration emerged through this deepening process. Second, the pursuit of a teaching practice oriented toward diversity and collaboration contributes to the growth and development of both children and teachers, through discussing the learning environment, the teacher's actions, and the processes through which children explore their expressions. Third, children's motives for expression can be encouraged through intellectual curiosity and interest in musical instruments, the creation of an atmosphere where children can feel comfortable and the creation of positive relationships and a sense of partnership among the children and teacher. Their need for competence, then, can be stimulated by activities such as imitating each other's expression

The Development of Lesson Plans to Enable Diversity and Authentic Learning using Music and Body Movement

In this study, the authors aimed to develop lessons in which diversity, collaboration , and authentic learning are ensured through children’s cooperative involvement in a special class for students with intellectual disabilities. The authors framed three practices and analyzed children’s activities and the teachers’ environment setting , including music and body movements. The authors found three key results. First, the ability to recognize the diversity of body movements and expression in different contexts was improved in the practices which caused authentic learning. Second, collaborativeness promote s and nurture s cooperation (sharing roles) when children and teachers work together to achieve collaboration (creation by synergistic effect), finally realizing authentic learning. Third, music and body movements have the power to communicate what words are often unable to－the ability to make others feel that they are wanted and valued. Music and body movements served as the medium and catalyst for deepening authentic dialog

Reconsideration of the Learning Process in Singing (2) : Development of Lessons Referring to Singing Dialogues in Bhutan <Article>

本論は，人が生涯にわたり音楽文化とかかわっていく土台を築くため，ブータン歌謡ツァンモの調査から得られた成果を参照しながら，音楽科の新しい方向性を見出すことを目的とした一連の研究に位置づくものである。本年度は，ラジオ放送や学校行事等，現在のツァンモのありように焦点をあて，自分なりの思いを歌で表現する意義を問い直した。とりわけ，歌の含意を共有し，なじみのある詩形や旋律を用いて，掛け合い歌による双方向のコミュニケーションを通して，自分の思いを歌で自在に伝える活動から手がかりを得て，小学校の音楽科授業における実践開発を試みた。To establish a foundation for people to remain involved in musical culture throughout their lives, we sought to find new directions for music lessons at school, referring to the results of a field survey of the Bhutanese tsangmo singing dialogue. In this study, we focused on the present state of tsangmo in radio broadcasting and school events. After referring to Bhutanese singing culture, we applied its dialogue style in music lessons for the lower grades in primary schools. By sharing the meaning and using familiar forms of the song text and melody, children were able to communicate with each other and showed the capacity to develop new learning processes in the playful singing dialogues. This approach may offer us a key to reconsidering the free expression of one's feelings through singing.本研究は，JSPS科研費26301043の助成を受けたものである

A Discussion on the Singing Dialogue Tsangmo : Bridging Culture Between Bhutan and Japan, from the Past to the Future

Bhutanese tsangmo is a unique cultural heritage that has been at the heart of folk culture in many regions of Bhutan. It was considered to be on the verge of extinction due to the trends toward globalization and modernization. However, new attempts have already been made in schools, through radio programming, teacher education, and other means to ensure its continuation. These attempts involve wisely transformed styles of traditional ways of playing. Our research group has been investigating the real-life circumstances and unique value of these songs since 2010. In this paper, we describe our findings and exchange opinions between Bhutanese and Japanese, each discussing tsangmo from our own viewpoints, including the cultural heritage in Bhutan, the language as it relates to tsangmo, new attempts to promote passing on tsangmo, Bhutanese creative dialogue and Japanese education, and finally, understanding the importance of tsangmo within the prospects for Asia from the perspective of ethnomusicology. Through our discussion we hope to shine a light on the remarkable and rich cultural heritage of Bhutan so that it may thrive in future generations.This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP 26301043