Music education in secondary school: didactic contributions to quality education

Abstract

The focus of this study lies in the need to discuss, theoretical and practical perspectives, on Music teaching, learning and assessment process, specifically within the scope of basic education internationally and nationally. This attempts to enhance and provide more effective responses to what is currently sought for quality education for all (UNESCO, 2015). In the context of the Music school subject, there is a tendency to value forms of knowledge transmission based on performative reproduction of music (Priest, 1998; McPherson, 2005; Mills & McPherson, 2006). That is, a tendency to look at products resulting mainly from what the teacher taught, and not so much on processes and results of what the student are able to learn based on the possibilities generated and focused on discovery, action and creativity. Thus, this PhD project assumes a didactic thinking and acting, by a teacher-researcher (author of the project), directed to the development of creative-musical thinking in the subject of Music in Secondary School (namely in Portugal at the “3rd Cycle of Basic Education”). The principle “sound before symbol”/”sound before sign” (McPherson & Gabrielsson, 2002; Mills & McPherson, 2006), and the valuing of processes based on problem solving and the acquisition of specific music and transversal skills (group work, communication, self/hetero evaluation) will be highlighted. The didactic perspective and action of the teacher-researcher assumes a coherence between the triple teaching & learning & assessment, as advocated by several authors (e.g. Fernandes, 2009; Fautley, 2010). This presentation reports on the results obtained so far, and which includes a short state of the art, an exploratory study carried out in a school (Vasconcelos, Caspurro & Costa, 2016), and the main study with a design of action research.