innovation in music education is only the first step in changing the game | music australia

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Innovation in musiceducation is only the firststep in changing the game

Mary Jo Capps November 26, 2014

No reader of this journal requires further proof, from me or anyone

else, of the value of music in education. Listing the intrinsic and

extrinsic value of an arts-rich education here would surely be

preaching to the converted. Yet, despite all the evidence and advocacy

of the past 30 years and more, approximately 80% of Australian

children still do not receive a music education program that is rich in

its resources, broad in its scope, and lasting in its impact, taught by

people who are equipped with specialist knowledge. So, how do we

collectively introduce a game-changer into this picture?

At Musica Viva, we have a birds-eye view of the potential obstacles.

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Innovation in music education is only the first step in changin... http://musicaustralia.org.au/2014/11/innovation-in-music-educ...

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Since commencing Musica Viva In Schools (MVIS) in 1981, we have

enriched the lives of over 7 million children across Australia, hopefully

inspiring them to be more engaged in listening to, creating and

performing music in their lives. We are the largest private provider of

music education program in Australian classrooms, with a diverse

program across the country, including in regional and remote areas.

Last year, MVIS musicians travelled over 120,000 kilometres to deliver

music education programs to over 260,000 students through 1,700

concerts, workshops and residencies as well as providing direct

training for over 2000 teachers p.a. as well as a further 8000 teachers

p.a. involved less directly.

We pride ourselves on providing broad, high quality music education

programs for primary and secondary students which range from live

performance to digital learning, through to extended residencies,

intensive workshops, accessible resources and live interactive

videoconferencing events. Our musicians cover a wide range of music

genres, from operatic performance groups to rap, Indonesian, African

and Latin American ensembles, exposing students to over 100 unique

instruments from the viola de gamba to the trombone, harp and

waterphone.

With this level of national coverage, we have heard most reasons why

schools would/could not introduce a rigorous music education

program: money, time, focus, internal capacity, to name but a few. Our

national research work a few years ago indicated two big factors that

would sway classroom teachers to engage more consistently with

music. Teachers were clamouring for digitally sophisticated resources

to engage students on their own terms more readily, and access to a

deeper exploration of Australian Indigenous culture. We set ourselves

the challenge of addressing the identified gaps, partnering with

relevant organisations whenever possible.

Quick forward a few years

to 2012, most notably with

the support of Rio Tinto

and DEEWR, and Musica

Viva unveiled digital

resources for interactive

whiteboards, linked to our

live music program. These

new resources were

automatically provided to

anyone who booked MVIS,

as well as providing them with the training to implement these

resources in the classroom. Suddenly children had interactive digital

music lessons, filled with fun-to-use activities to develop deeper

musical understanding, plus high quality video material to familiarise

the children with music styles as diverse as Balkan folk, Indonesian

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gamelan, early Western music and contemporary multi-media.

Earlier this year The Guardian UK, with the help of the British CouncilsCreative Economy team, scanned the globe for projects that use digital

technologies in new and inspiring ways, and listed ten of their

favourites in the world. Musica Vivas interactive whiteboard resources

project was selected as one of them, and the only Australian project,

as you can read here.

But that is changing the game for those students engaged with Musica

Viva In Schools. What about the rest of the children? For many years,

we have built our programs on the premise that empowering the

classroom teacher is the only sure-fire way to introduce real change in

school music education, as most other interventions are necessarily

short-lived. The one-to-many approach has to have the greatest

potential impact. In 2014, our fully accredited professional

development program in every state and territory was transitioned to

deliver digital teacher professional development. This change has

enabled teachers to access professional development without the time

or distance constraints of the past. Where previously some teachers,

particularly those in regional areas, had to travel long distances to

attend workshops, they can now access quality live interactive

seminars at the click of a button, and review it as often as they like.

The teacher resources and online seminars are available at

www.musicstaffroom.com for all schools that book the MVIS Live

Performance Plus program.

The next game-changing step surely has to be pre-service

intervention, and ongoing mentorship of classroom teachers, giving

the tools to deliver quality music education throughout the year. Some

moves are underway in this regard, but we need to address this issue

before it becomes an even greater problem than it is now, as identified

years ago in the (then) Music Councils research, which confirmed how

little music tuition was provided during the course of tertiary teacher

training. Surely we can collectively arrange the means to start

addressing this, offering a variety of options for implementation in

2015, before any more years slip by!

On top of that, we need to

attack the issue from

another direction, and

make music education a

universally sought-after

program by children and

parents alike. The next

stage of Musica Vivas

digital development will

provide student-centred

resources, tailored to specific age and ability levels for students from


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Foundation through to Year 8. They will be equipped with

complementary lesson plans, assessment tools and classroom

activities which can be tailored for use by both generalist and

specialist music teachers. Importantly, the parents can be active

partners in the learning.

Musica Viva has spent many years and many hundreds of thousands of

dollars creating these platforms and programs in music education. Im

fervently hoping, in a country with as small a population as Australia,

that we resist the temptation for each of us to re-invent the wheel.

How powerful would it be if, instead, we collaborate to provide the

means by which content from other arts and language

organisations/artists can be transferred onto these existing platforms

to accelerating the pace of change. Time is running out, and no one

has endless resources. We are already exploring partnerships that will

achieve the ends we are all seeking that the next generation of

Australians will receive far better arts education as a right, not as

an optional extra available only to the privileged.

The capacity of these new resources to achieve significant results in

multiple disciplines has become most apparent in the project

addressing the other glaring gap in available resources for classrooms:

Aboriginal culture. A creative partnership including NAISDA Dance

College, elders from Elcho Island in North-East Arnhem Land (Yolngu

tribe) and Musica Viva, again with funding from Rio Tinto and a variety

of private and public supporters, has culminated in the hugely

successful Dtiwuy Dreaming. The program includes:

Following the obvious

potential of this program

to preserve and activate

Yolngu language and

culture, Musica Viva is

keen to explore the

possibility of expanding

this model to create digital

resources to upskill

teachers to deliver a

Creative Arts curriculum as well as a means of capturing and sharing

the cultural heritage of the diverse language groups of Australias

many Aboriginal nations.

professional development for all participating teachers digital teaching resource with interactive student activities,

mp3s, video, curriculum links (including literacy in both English

and Yolngu language, social studies, history, dance, and of

course music)

Instructional videos supporting teachers with the cultural

protocols in exploring an Aboriginal culture


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There is scope to use Musica Vivas digital resources as a launch pad

for presenting and preserving cultural and language content for

Australias Indigenous people and for other cultures around the world.

And the next step? Musica Viva is currently exploring other avenues

for distributing its content more widely, which should be available early

in 2015.

So those game-changers were seeking? Were already making great

progress with innovative ways of bringing music alive for children in

school through both live and digital programs; with professional

development for teachers to engage their classes throughout the year,

using music as a platform to explore other subject areas as well as

musics own innate qualities; with Aboriginal cultural studies, offering

exploration of the subject area that is respectful and rigorous; and

increasingly, with student-centred resources that engage whole

families, inexorably leading them to push for more music education in

their local schools. After that? Hopefully, exponential change.

If youre interested in being part of this concerted effort forward, we

are interested in hearing from you. This problem is too big for any one

organisation to tackle, so lets make the only competition the one to

get music and arts into the lives of more children.

Photos: Musica Viva

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About: Mary Jo Capps

Mary Jo Capps has worked in the Australian cultural

industry for more than 30 years after graduating

with an MA in Musicology from the University of

Toronto. In 1999 she was appointed CEO of Musica

Viva Australia, where she continues to advance

chamber music and music education internationally.

In 2010, Mary Jo became the first female President of

the Sydney Business Chamber since it was founded in

1825. She is currently Chair of the Advisory Board of

the Faculty of the VCA and Melbourne

Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, a

Board Director of the Community Council of

Australia, Green Music Australia and of the Peggy

Glanville Hicks Trust, and a Council member of the

Centre for Social Impact. She works as a professional

mentor and is actively engaged in supporting

emerging talent, particularly in arts administration.

View all posts by Mary Jo Capps

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innovation in music education is only the first step in changing the game | music australia

Documents

value of music

andperforming music

artsrich education

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