Implementation and expectations of music software from Hong Kong music teachers' pedagogical perspective

Implementation and expectations of music software from Hong Kong music teachers' pedagogical perspective

• Cheng, Lee The Hong Kong Institute of Education
• Leong, Samuel The Hong Kong Institute of Education

The 30th International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference on Music Education: Music paedeia: From ancient Greek philosophers toward global music communities (2012: Thessaloniki, Greece)

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GF Humanities & Arts
• F Learning & Teaching
  • FD Application of Communicative Media, IT in Learning & Teaching

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

The most updated ICT in education policies in Hong Kong music curriculum are the music curriculum guide and the music curriculum and assessment guide implemented in 2006 and 2009 for primary and secondary school. Both curriculum guides emphasis the importance of the role of technology in the music curriculum. This paper focuses on the music software design from the perspective of Hong Kong music teachers’ pedagogical considerations. Most music software used by teachers today in their teaching is originally designed for professional or commercial usage, and little pedagogical considerations have been taken. While technology is gradually and increasingly integrated into music education, the absence of pedagogical considerations in the software design is an emerging problem. In order to understand the music teachers’ needs and expectations from music software, the purpose of this study was to investigate the most useful and desired features of commonly used music software from the perspective of music teachers’ pedagogical concerns. A simple questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were conducted with 15 purposefully chosen primary or secondary school music teachers in Hong Kong. Those teachers were chosen to included both primary and secondary schools, and both mainstream local curriculum and international baccalaureate (IB) program. Teachers recently graduated were particularly chosen as they have experienced the most recent pre-service music teacher training which incorporated the considerations of ICT in education. Results show that music notation software is the most popular software used for music teaching, followed by audio editing software and mobile apps. Choice of particular music software brand is up to the availability and personal preference from the music teachers. The main use of music software by teachers is for preparing teaching materials. Software mostly used during the music classes is mobile apps for the purpose of demonstration. Some of the desired features of music software from their pedagogical perspective are already available, yet either those features are still immature to be used for teaching purpose or teachers do not aware of those software packages. Other desired features can be easily developed and implemented but are unavailable in those currently available software. While the unavailability of music software features from music teachers caused by teachers’ absence of knowledge and immature technology should be addressed by other means, pedagogical considerations should be taken in the software design to redeem those unavailable features which could easily be developed and implemented.

Paper presented at the 30th International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference on Music Education: Music paedeia: From ancient Greek philosophers toward global music communities, Thessaloniki, Greece

• English

Conference Papers

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/b6c2be04

2015-11-05