Developing children’s self-initiated music making - Changing Places project

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

The three-month Changing Places project investigated how early childhood student teachers and music students co-developed children’s self-initiated music making across Auckland centres. The study challenges calculative approaches in music learning that treat music as predefined tasks, objects, and accurate reproduction. Data came from video recordings of student pairs, audio of shared dialogues, and online Moodle discussions. Findings describe how dialogue enabled a shared ethos, supporting open exploration and changes in musical education ideas.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Research aim

Research context

Developing children’s self initiated music making through the creation of a shared ethos in an early years music project Christopher Naughton New Zealand Tertiary College David Lines University of Auckland Abstract The three-month Changing Places project involved early childhood student teachers working with music students in developing children’s music in centres in Auckland, New Zealand. The project set out to challenge the calculative aspect in music learning (Heidegger, 1993). The term calculative in this instance describes learning seen as music as preordained tasks. The music students involved in the project understood music in the form of a predefined score to be perfectly realised, while the early childhood teachers were familiar with a repertoire of early childhood songs and music played on a CD with pre-ordained actions to be performed at mat times. Data for the study was obtained through video recordings of student pairs working with children in centres, audio recordings of shared dialogues between students and online moodle discussions. This paper describes the different ways in which the two sets of students through their dialogue developed a shared ethos that countered their previous approaches and understandings of music education. The suggestion is made that the task itself, of developing self initiated music making with children, facilitated this open exploration and change of musical education ideas. Key words: Music, Heidegger, calculative, philosophy, Changing Places, Ethos, Pedagogy of Listening, Holistic Learning Australian Journal of Music Education 2013:1, 23-33 Research aim The Changing Places project was premised on a set of philosophical ideas about pedagogy and practice in music. These were outlined in a position paper, Changing Places: Openness, pedagogy and Heidegger written by the two researchers and formulated soon after the initiation of the project. In this position paper the authors critiqued pedagogical practices found in both tertiary music education and early childhood teacher preparation that led to students seeing their own subject knowledge and their resulting conceptions of teaching as calculative. Frequently music students see musical performance as the realization of ‘objects’ -or‘music pieces’ -that exist primarily for the purposes of accurate reproduction. Pedagogically, this perception of music impacts on the student musician in terms of their conception of themselves as music teachers. In this music worldview, teaching practices become focused primarily on performance outcomes, regardless of the differing needs, aims and motivations ofthe young children with whom they are working. Further, over reliance on certain kinds of performance outcomes may prevent other, more emergent, learning to surface, such as cross-modal learning ([e.g. dance/music/drama](e.g. dance/music/drama)) and hence child initiated learning generated from the impulses and creative actions of children themselves becomes lost. In New Zealand, the early childhood student teacher’s view of learning tends to be more holistic in nature, in synergy with the New Zealand Early Childhood curriculum Te Whāriki, with its overarching principles of Mana Atua (wellbeing), Mana Whenua (belonging), Mana Tangata (contribution) and Mana Aoturoa (exploration) . As such, Te Whāriki promotes practices of making and developing learning from ideas that spring from the child, within the context of the family and centre environment. The challenge for early childhood student teachers is to bring these ideas and ethos into music. The researchers in this project believed that the music-as-object technologies such as CDs, are used too frequently in centres in New Zealand and as background resources at mat-time. The researchers felt that the Changing Places project could offer alternative ideas and practices for the early childhood students more in keeping with the values and aims of Te Whāriki. From a philos

FAQs

What is the Changing Places project focused on?

It focuses on developing children’s self-initiated music making through shared practice between early childhood student teachers and music students in Auckland centres.

How does the paper define the calculative aspect of music learning?

It describes learning where music is treated as predefined score-based tasks and performance outcomes, emphasizing accurate reproduction rather than emergent learning.

What data sources were used in the study?

Video recordings of student pairs working with children, audio recordings of shared student dialogues, and online Moodle discussion data.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine