Martin Fautley

A new model of the group composing process of lower secondary school students

Much composing that takes place in the lower secondary school is undertaken as a group activity. This paper investigates what is involved when pupils work in this way, and offers a model of processes and phases, which can be used to account for group composing. The model describes what is taking place, and charts the ways in which groups of pupils progress through phases during their composing work. Results from trialling the model are discussed, and ways in which classroom teachers might use it proposed.

Teacher intervention strategies in the composing processes of lower secondary school students

In this article, case studies of teacher interventions in the composing processes of school students aged 11-14 in generalist music classes are described and discussed. The study finds that music teachers have developed their own strategies for formative assessment, unaware that these are valorized by external agencies.

Assessment of composing in the lower secondary school in the English National Curriculum

This article reports the results of research into teachers’ practices concerning the assessment of composing at Key Stage 3 in the National Curriculum for Music in England. It finds that many teachers are using NC levels for assessing individual pieces of work, a process for which they were never intended. It also finds that teachers find it difficult to show progress using NC levels, and that many teachers have rewritten the levels into child-friendly language, thus causing further difficulties.

Assessment for learning and teaching in secondary schools

Assessment is central to teaching and learning, yet is one of the most difficult areas of professional practice. This book guides trainee secondary teachers through its complexities and provides practical strategies, exemplified by case studies. It examines issues such as diagnosing problems, sharing learning objectives, assessment as a tool for motivation, effective planning, using evidence to adapt teaching, peer and self assessment, learning through dialogue and understanding formative assessment. Targeted specifically at trainees, this text links explicitly to the new QTS Standards, and its tasks provide opportunities for reflection and for practising the range of skills involved in assessing pupils.

Difficult questions in music education

In the last editorial of the British Journal of Music Education (Fautley & Murphy, 2015 ) we gave some thought to the various ways in which music education manifests itself in teaching and learning situations in a variety of contexts. One of the many roles that the BJME fulfils is to document the changing nature of music education, as represented in the articles which are submitted to it, and subsequently published. But this does not mean that we should not also be asking difficult questions as to what the purposes of music education are, or might be. This is particularly the case when we consider the international nature of the readership of the BJME . What counts as music education in one national context may be very different from that which is practised elsewhere.

Baseline assessment of pupil composing competencies on entry to secondary school: a pilot study

This study addresses the baseline assessment of pupil composing competencies at age 11+. It asks whether it might be possible for these to be evaluated by the use of a whole-class listening task. A rationale for this proposal is discussed. Results from a pilot study which administered an original audiated puzzle-task to a cohort of pupils, followed by a related composing assignment, are presented, analysed and discussed. This methodology is shown to reveal information about pupil composing competencies.

O Fortuna: Creativity in English music education considered from a post-modernist perspective

The turning of the Wheel of Fortune, realised in music so graphically by Orff in ‘Carmina Burana’, has meant that use of the term ‘creativity’ has been steadily returning to music education. Thus we now have ‘creative partnerships’ (NACCE, 1999), ‘creative futures’ (Buckingham, 2000), ‘creative schools, creative classrooms’ (NCA/NUT, 2002), and many more. This seems to mark a sea change in attitudes, as, for a while it appeared that the term ‘creative’ was persona non grata with reference to music education. This might be because the term ‘creative’, when applied to music-making, carries significant baggage. Charting the rise, fall, and rise-again of the term is to observe a series of trends which portray the zeitgeist of progressive (another bogeyman-word) thinking. In the preface to the section on composition in the 1896 edition of The musical educator the author issued a stern warning to his students:

Music education: Why bother?

One of the common questions asked of music educators is some sort of variation on ‘music education – why bother?’

Notation and Music Education

Every year on the pre-service teacher education course with which I am associated in England, we have something we have come to refer to as ‘the notation argument’. When this happens varies, but it normally occurs fairly near the beginning of the course. In essence, what happens is that a divide opens up between those pre-service teachers who believe they need to teach western classical stave notation in isolation from other aspects of music, and that this needs to be done in advance of other musical activities, as preparation for them. The other group of pre-service trainee teachers counter this with the case that there should be some sort of a need for this knowledge, and that acquiring it in isolation is unlikely to happen anyway. This notation argument can rage, on and off, for a good proportion of the first term, depending on how the issues are dealt with, and how passionate the various advocates are.

The nature of music itself, and the knowledge versus skills debate in music education

Back in 2013, in the BJME editorial for issue 30(2), we considered the place of knowledge in the curriculum (Fautley & Murphy, 2013 ). Things have not stood still since that date, certainly in England, and other parts of the world too. What we have now is a situation where the idea of knowledge as assuming supremacy over skills is on the increase. For those of us concerned with music education, many aspects of this increasingly fractious debate are to be viewed with concern. Allied to this, we have neoliberal-leaning governments in many parts of the world, Britain included, who seem to find it difficult to understand the important role that music education has – or should have – in the education of our children and young people. Indeed, in the UK, the education secretary is on record as making this observation: Education secretary Nicky Morgan has warned young people that choosing to study arts subjects at school could ‘hold them back for the rest of their lives’ (The Stage, 2014 ) This attitude, and Britain is certainly not alone in this, is clearly going to be problematic for those of us involved in music and the arts.