Demonstration of Composition Pedagogy in Practice

The 21st century has seen a distinct shift away from the skills associated with a knowledge economy toward the skills needed for a creative economy. The growing relationship between creative capability, the need for ongoing innovation, and the globalization of economic activity has bought about increasing political and economic influences on education (Craft & Jeffrey, 2008; Sahlberg, 2006). There is a persistent and pervasive educational and social demand to develop 21st century students who are creative thinkers (Craft, 2008). Despite this, in a recent study conducted by Crawford (2019) it was clear that students and teachers often perceive engaging in creative endeavors as risky business and tend to avoid it focusing attention primarily on critical thinking.

The study also found clear evidence to suggest that teachers struggled with understanding how to enact the creative elements of the critical and creative curriculum (Crawford, 2019). Key barriers to nurturing experimental dispositions in students such as creativity, can be attributed to the narrowing of the curriculum due to national high-stakes standardized testing, influencing the ways that schools situate learning that in turn have potentially negative ongoing impacts on teachers’ pedagogy. Berliner (2011) argues that schools are narrowing the curriculum by increasing the lesson time focused on high stakes test content and skills, reporting that up to 35% of time previously devoted to subjects such as social studies, physical education, art, and music had been redirected to test preparation.

Darling-Hammond (2006) has also expressed concern about how low-quality testing regimes and test preparation have led to a narrow curriculum, increasingly disconnected from the higher-order skills required for success in today’s world. An acknowledgment of important curriculum threads, such as the critical and creative thinking general capability, indicates an appreciation of these skills in Australia. However, how they are enacted and within which disciplines, tells a different story about the perceived value of certain subjects over others, for example, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) over the arts. The critical and creative thinking curriculum should not detract from discipline-based learning, as it can support the development of effective and innovative thinking that will enhance student learning outcomes within and across disciplines.

Case 1: High Performing Primary Government School Exploring the Critical and Creative Thinking Curriculum through Composition and Literacy.This case (Crawford, 2020d) uses a concept-based curriculum and interdisciplinary approach that situates composition at the center of learning. Developing interdisciplinary learning spaces can enable practitioners to teach integrated content that develops creative and metacognitive thinking and covers content effectively, while halting preoccupations with standardized testing. Focusing on higher order thinking skills may develop students who are creative, curious, resilient, and resourceful, preparing them for lifelong learning so that they can thrive in a fast-changing world. However, developing practice requires time, in-depth understanding, and experimentation. Collaborative practitioner research was used to identify and develop the teaching and learning strategies and classroom practices used by three key learning specialists in a primary school setting when enacting the critical and creative thinking curriculum (Crawford, 2020d).

One of the key aims was to work with these teachers to increase professional efficacy in the explicit teaching of thinking skills, including creativity, metacognitive processes, and collaborative learning in the curriculum. Three collaborative professional development workshops were provided to develop teachers’ understanding of how creativity can be fostered as well as used to enhance critical thinking. As the school in this case has a one-to-one iPad program, the use of creative applications and technology were utilized. Classroom observations and student work samples were used to assess student learning outcomes and provide an evidence-base for this practice. The content and learning tasks in the sequence of lessons used were varied in the degree of complexity and guided instruction provided, according to student year level and ability.

Lesson Sequence Outline. Stage 1—Engagement Exploration: Students explore sound and conduct a series of creative musical experiments through Chrome Music Lab (CML). The platform provides interactive music experiences, which are built with freely accessible web technology such as Web Audio API, WebMIDI, Tone.js and is designed to work across a range of devices simply by opening the site on a web browser such as Chrome. Students went through each element of the music lab discussing the different ways sounds could be made, what sounds “looked like” using different aspects of the site.

Students completed a musical scavenger hunt to explore the elements of music within the context of the different interactive aspects within CML. Some examples include: Song Maker—Compose a melody using the pentatonic scale (you can change the scale in the Settings area); Spectrogram—Choose two sound sources (from the icons at the bottom) and write down three differences between each of the spectrograms for those sounds; Kandinsky—Draw some horizontal lines on the screen at different heights. What is the difference between the lines drawn at the bottom of the screen and those drawn in the middle or the top of the screen? Explore differences in sound qualities as determined by the colors, lines, and shapes.

Stage 2—Exploration of music and emotion through different music pieces: Students were asked to listen to a range of different pieces of music and to identify how these pieces made them feel and why. This activity would directly lead to creating their own music piece to accompany and match a spoken word poem. Once students had listened to the music piece, they were asked to identify which specific instruments created the sounds that influenced their emotions, and through guided critical listening and analysis develop an understanding of how the instrumentation and musical elements were used to create these emotional responses. Peer discussion and feedback were encouraged and the suggestions were highly constructive as new knowledge was constructed using authentic context-specific examples and prior knowledge. Pre-established mutually agreed-upon behavioral expectations meant that students understood that all perspectives and opinions were valued.

Stage 3—Creation of music: Students were instructed to compose a piece of music using a music composition program of choice. Students already had some knowledge of the technology applications available to them and made choices based on their prior use and understanding of the tools available, such as GarageBand and Song Maker in CML. They also expressed preference to compositional platforms that provided a diverse suite of sound samples, sound combinations, effects, and instruments available to them. Criteria for this piece of music was that it had a clear structure, elicited purposeful emotional responses from the listener, and provided an appropriate background soundtrack to the emotive poem students had written to accompany this. Students used the knowledge constructed from classroom discussions and sound experiments from previous lessons to create a range of emotional responses and were able to articulate with clarity why they made certain choices.

Students clearly appreciated the creative freedom and independently worked on pieces that presented a range of complex sound development and layering. An important part of this stage was to engage in collaborative learning by testing emotional responsivity and interpretations of the music created through seeking peer feedback. An opportunity was also provided for a larger classroom discussion where further feedback could be received. Students were excited to play their music for each other, eagerly awaiting peer reactions and opportunities to discuss their decisions and compositional intentions. It was clear that the supportive learning environment dispelled any issues related to reluctance in sharing music created. Students had an opportunity to apply any feedback received that they thought would enhance their musical pieces.

Stage 4—Live performances: Students performed the poems with their soundtrack backings. The audience provided feedback on the soundtrack and the performance, drawing links to program music and popular motives and rhythms in films. Each student reflected on the learning process and on their experiences as both a composer and audience member.

Stage 5—Artwork: Students reviewed an artist that they felt exhibited emotion in their work. Students were then asked to create an album cover for their spoken word poem and soundtrack inspired by this artist—emulating and interpreting their artist’s ideas and the emotion they hoped to convey.

A number of elements from the critical and creative thinking curriculum were explored that align with the multidimensional/non-linear teaching and learning model, such as authentic learning that is student-centered and considered valued knowledge. Higher order thinking skills, such as analytical and critical thinking skill development, were balanced with creative endeavors to explore aesthetic perspectives and emotional responsivity (Crawford, 2020d). Curriculum threads include music and general capabilities as well as interdisciplinary links to literacy, visual arts, and technology to enhance learning outcomes. Due to the positive outcomes of the approach used to enacting the critical and creative thinking curriculum, school-wide implementation was endorsed by the School Improvement Team (Crawford, 2020d).