Life attitudes to, level of involvement with and success in musical learning are all tied to first musical experiences. Consequently an important objective in the planning of any musical programme for young children is to acknowledge their interests in and attitudes to different musical activities. The purpose of this investigation was to determine young children's attitudes to musical activities included in their pre-school musical programme. In particular it sought to discern if preferences exist for certain activities. What emerged from the investigation is that pre-school children generally appear to respond favourably towards involvement in all musical activities but that preferences do exist for moving and playing based activities.

This article was motivated by a staff development session when the brass faculty of a conservatoire were invited to share and discuss their approaches to teaching. It presents the results of interviews with six well known woodwind or brass players who have also taught at one or more conservatoires in London for periods of between one and 40 years. All are male. The six instruments represented are: trumpet, horn, trombone, flute, clarinet and bassoon. While there were commonalities in the approach of teachers, marked differences also emerged. Although some of these may reflect the particular demands of the instrument on which a teacher specialises, and the ease with which accomplished students of that instrument may be recruited to conservatoires, there also appear to be substantial differences in the individual approach of teachers. The findings raise the issue of whether it may be appropriate to provide some training for instrumental teachers at conservatoire level; surely one way of making the pool of accumulated wisdom more readily available, to prospective teachers and to the research community.

This paper considers the effects of children's gender associations on their preferences for musical instruments, and questions whether the limited range of instrumental selection made by boys can be regarded as a result of such associations.

The research project was devised to investigate the responses of infant school children to male and female musicians. The findings indicated that instrumental preferences were influenced by gender associations which could be lessened by providing positive role models. Whereas girls were more able to cross over gender divisions than boys, boys had a narrower range of interests in instruments. It was shown that the provision of an opposite gendered role model helped to overcome the associations made with particular instruments.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the background to the introduction of peer assessment at the University of Ulster and to report on how the project has operated and developed over the past three years. Initially assessors were drawn from the same student year group as the performers (BMus, year 2). The process was monitored by the authors who subsequently met with each assessment panel to discuss the performances before marks and reports were finalised. In the following years the assessment of second-year performances was conducted by panels of final-year students; this resulted in more objective reporting.

This article derives from a research project investigating the singing behaviour of a group of Australian boys in their first year of school. The project showed that the genesis of the ‘missing male’ trend in singing at school may be occurring in early childhood. The impact of hegemonic masculinity in early childhood is explored here by examining the intersection between this group of boys' perceptions of masculinity and their singing behaviours. Peer modelling was found to be an effective motivational ‘tool’ for improving singing behaviour and illustrates the importance of finding strategies to support boys' success in singing long before adolescence.

Research into children's singing has gradually gained momentum since the beginning of this century. These studies have principally concentrated on the identification of children's ‘comfortable’ singing ranges, and the identification and treatment of children who sing out-of-tune, usually termed ‘uncertain singers’ or ‘poor pitch singers’ (p.p.s.). Several investigators have commented that out-of-tune singing appears in different forms (for reviews, see Phillips 1984; Welch 1979a, b, 1985b). The aim of the present article is to discuss these findings and to suggest that children's singing has an underlying developmental process.

This paper explores patterns of interpersonal behaviour amongst teachers and pupils during one-to-one instrumental lessons. It was hypothesised that these patterns might differ in systematic ways, according to an existing model of six interaction ‘types’ developed within a systems theory perspective and based on measures of interpersonal control and responsiveness. Eleven violin teachers and their pupils aged 10–16 were observed. Digital recordings of 23 one-to-one lessons were analysed using the overarching categories of teacher talk, teacher questioning, scaffolding, pupil talk and pupil playing. Behaviour style was found to correspond with the model of interpersonal interaction in instrumental teaching. Highly directive teachers were found to engage most often in scaffolding, while the most responsive teachers allowed space for the pupil voice to be heard and provided more feedback that was attributed to specific strategies or effort. These findings suggest that teachers and pupils may become entrenched in fixed patterns of interaction behaviour that potentially place constraints on teaching and learning outcomes. The implications for practice lie in teachers’ awareness and reflections on their own interaction behaviours. Being cognisant of fixed patterns of behaviour, teachers may choose to re-frame their style of interaction, thus effecting positive changes in teaching and learning.

Interactive music video games are a readily available, mainstream technology but they are not generally seen as educative tools. Nor are they established within school teaching and learning environments. This study investigated children's use of these games from a music education perspective. Nine children, aged 9–11 years, and two specialist music teachers each participated in an individual semi-structured interview. The child participants were drawn from four metropolitan schools and the teachers were from different metropolitan schools. Results indicate that the games may help to develop some music skills and knowledge and that the games are of high interest and importance to students. The music teachers acknowledged the potential of interactive music video games to be incorporated into traditional music curriculum but they each expressed a belief that ideally the technology needs further development, including a greater capacity to compose and create using the programs. These findings suggest that, based on constructivist learning theories, there may be a place for these games in music education.

Although it is often suggested that there are important connections between composing, performing and audience-listening, there is little evidence as to the nature of this relationship. In this paper we report research into the extent that musical understanding is symmetrically revealed and developed across the three activities. Our theory of musical understanding is based on the work of Swanwick, and assessment criteria derived from the work of Swanwick and Tillman (1986) made it possible to compare levels of musical cognition whatever the specific activity. A study of the musical work of twenty children in a music school in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, suggests that performance usually elicits lower levels of musical understanding, significantly different from either composing or audience-listening. It seems that performance can be problematic within the music curriculum unless students are able to work at a technical level where they are able to exercise interpretative judgement and make musical decisions. The findings support the claims for an integrated music curriculum comprising all three activities.

The overall purpose of this article is to provide a convenient summary of empirical research on improvisation in general music education and thereby provide guidance to researchers and practitioners, using a systematic, narrative-review approach. By analysing 20 music education research articles, published from 2000–2015 in peer-reviewed journals, we firstly provide an overview of the key features and knowledge of existing research. Secondly we identify how improvisation has been characterized, conceptually before, thirdly, describing the implications of the literature for improvisation in practice. Our article reveals that improvisation tends to be an overlooked activity both in music education contexts and in music education research. Broadly speaking, music education research tends to characterise improvisation within two conceptual frameworks, which have different implications for implementation; ‘structured’, teacher-directed improvisation and ‘free’, child-directed improvisation. We conclude by arguing that music educational research on improvisation is an underdeveloped field and outline a number of questions to be addressed in future research.

Adolescence is characterised by a distinctive phase of vocal development which bridges childhood and adulthood. Various research studies over the past twenty years have demonstrated that the physical maturation of the adolescent voice mechanism produces a systematic change in both the male and female singing voice. Longitudinal research data indicate that there are distinctive features to each stage of adolescent voice change and that, with an appropriate matching of repertoire, it is possible for all young people to continue to sing successfully throughout this period. The traditional and stereotypical notion that adolescent male voices ‘break’ is untenable in the light of this research evidence and it is suggested that a concept of adolescent singing voice ‘transformation’ or ‘change’ is a more accurate representation of the physiological reality. It is a weakness of the revised National Curriculum for Music (1995) that it makes no appropriate reference to this unique period of adolescent voice change and, as a result, teachers receive inadequate statutory guidance on the development of singing at Key Stage 3.

Information technology is having a profound impact upon the music curriculum, and there is general agreement that boys and girls should have equal opportunities to benefit from it. Although music has traditionally been a subject in which girls predominate, technology is clearly stereotyped as a male preserve. The present paper reports some findings from the Leverhulme Trust-funded ‘Gender and educational computing in the humanities’ project at the University of Leicester, which is using survey and interview techniques with a large sample of pupils and teachers in the Midlands to investigate these questions. The preliminary results suggest that boys are more confident in their use of music technology; that they are showing an increasing interest in music as a result of it; and that teachers have a crucial role to play in ensuring that girls are not disadvantaged in the use of music technology.

How is information and communications technology (ICT) used to promote musical learning by pupils aged eleven to fourteen, i.e. pupils in Key Stage 3? Inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) visited 52 schools in England, and inspected 161 Key Stage 3 music lessons that made some use of ICT. This article describes the characteristics of the good teaching found in 106 of those lessons, and discusses some issues concerning the use of ICT in classrooms.

This article reports on a school-based research project into teaching composing at GCSE, setting this alongside a review of the literature. It suggests that research into cognition in composing in school students and teaching composing within a school context may be synthesised by understanding composing as problem solving. Composing is described as knowledge-rich, complex, multiple and creative problem solving, requiring the development of skills of hypothesis and verification in students. A series of case studies of individual teachers is analysed using Bernstein's framework for coding knowledge in the curriculum. Research data presented suggest that although there is significant variation in the practice of individual teachers, teaching composing is characterised in the main activities of instruction and training in composing skills and knowledge; management of a positive creative learning environment; and facilitation of ownership, autonomy and authority in students. The article concludes by suggesting that conceptualising teaching composing as problem solving enables music educators to rationalise the specific demands of the curriculum context in which they are operating by providing students with a framework for cognitive development in composing.

This study is a replication of Dr Lucy Green's (1993) research using responses to an open-ended questionnaire to interpret music teachers' perceptions about boys' and girls' achievements in music classes compared to their results on the General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations (GCSE) in music. Using a revised questionnaire, the British Columbia study examined secondary music teachers' perceptions of gender issues and compared them with Grade 12 Examination results. The impact of gender beliefs was most evident in composition, where the provincial grades contradict teachers' perceptions of success and where the possible impact of technology on girls has not yet been acknowledged.

The issue of music teacher training for primary generalist teachers is shared by many countries in the world. We know from a range of studies which factors contribute to teachers’ abilities and confidence, but there are fewer studies that document the possible training approaches and interventions that might improve the outcomes. This article describes an international educational experience addressed to 23 trainee primary teachers coming from Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovenia. The Intensive Programme1 called ‘International Summer School in Educating Music Teachers’ (ISSEMT) was offered at Padova University, Italy with the purpose of fostering confidence and competences among trainee generalist teachers for teaching music in the primary school. In planning the didactic approach of the ISSEMT, methods designed to enhance participants’ understandings of teaching creatively and teaching for creativity were adopted. The entire educational activity was evaluated by students using questionnaires and discussion. In addition, a follow-up interview was conducted with students after two years and five months, at the end of the ISSEMT. Students refer to the improvement of confidence in teaching music and the application of a creative approach. They appreciated the approach, the practical teaching ideas and the way the course closely related to their educational needs. These results are discussed in the framework of confidence development of the generalist teacher in the primary school for teaching music. The key factors that contributed to the effectiveness of the ISSEMT are also discussed.

This article critically examines how interactions between social changes, social harmony, and historical memory shape school music education in China. As a historical review and documentary analysis, it traces the historical development of music education and examines the Chinese government's role in such interactions over time. The article argues that the Chinese government uses music and music education as an influential nation-building system to enrich the politics of memory. In particular, it adapts the nation's past for political ends, and passes on state-prescribed values to its citizens with a view to legitimising its power. The dynamics and dilemmas that challenge school education result from two divergent aims: (1) to combine the functional education of Confucianism and nationalism so as to encourage social harmony and maintain national myths; and (2) to encourage popular and other world music with traditional Chinese music by using multicultural teaching strategies in music lessons. The question remains how to balance ideas of social harmony, musical cultures and nationalism in school music education in the contexts of current Chinese education policies, teacher education and the globally oriented economics of China today.

Sexual difference expresses itself not only in the musical practices and tastes of boys and girls in schools, but also in teachers' discourse about pupils' musicality. The following article explores this discourse through interpreting the findings of some questionnaire research, which was intended to tap teachers' common-sense and sometimes unspoken assumptions about gender, music and education. A considerable amount of both overt and implicit consensus between teachers is revealed. Questions are raised about the implications of such a consensus, both for the musical education of children, and for the musical roles of men and women. This article was originally written and published as a Research Report in the London University Institute of Education.

This article outlines the development and trial of peer assessment procedures for implementation within a music performance context in the Australian tertiary environment. An overview of the literature on peer assessment is presented, followed by reference to specific trials of peer assessment within a tertiary music student context. The paper then presents the rationale for and methodology applied in developing two forms of peer assessment of music performance, for trial across one academic year. Student evaluation data obtained via mid- and end-of-year questionnaires are analysed and discussed, as are implications for further research.

This article presents evidence of the value of collaborative learning for students working in small heterogeneous groups within first year music practice courses in an Australian university popular music program. Wenger, Trayner, and de Laat’s framework for promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks was used to gather and analyse data from students throughout one academic year. Collaborative learning created value for students through peer-to-peer learning which cultivated new skills and improved performance, causing students to reframe their criteria for musical and personal success. The value of collaborative learning promotes its use both within and beyond popular music degree programs.