Aesthetics and general music education at primary levels

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Melbourne, 1996The aim of this research has been to develop educational resources which would contribute to any philosophical curriculum designed to stimulate children to reflect on their aesthetic experiences in music. The work is intended to be of value to primary school educators, particularly those working in philosophy with an interest in musical aesthetics, and those in general music education working to empower their students as music makers. I considered how providing children with direction, modelling, time and opportunity for philosophical reflection on their musical practices would enhance their musicality. I referred to material that Gary King and I developed in private preschool music classes, Artists-in-Schools projects under Arts Victoria, and in children's workshops for the Victorian Gifted and Talented Association. This material had proven useful in empowering children to express themselves creatively through music, dance, gesture and story, rather than circumscribing them as passive consumers of music. My philosophical background is shaped by the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. For pedagogical purposes I appealed to the work of Carl Orff in music education and Matthew Lipman in philosophical education. Following Howard Gardner I drew on current ethnomusicological and psychological research, and the testimonies of composers describing the domain of musicality. The theoretical background of this thesis makes use of distinctions between 'person', 'domain' and 'field' as elaborated by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. The project culminated in the development of some educational resources designed to stimulate children to reflect on aesthetic problems arising in the context of their musical experiences. Further work may focus on refining and publishing a handbook of exercises of this kind for use in Primary Classrooms