Abstract:

Nowadays, music is a compulsory curricular subject in the Chilean educational system, to which it has been assigned two hours of classes per week. Approximately 102,000 teachers, 56% of the total, are working at Primary Schools. Of these, only 2.25% have formal music instruction [1]. The rest of the teachers lack both specialized music and music didactics training that should occur during their pre-service teacher training in order to successfully offer music classes at the level of Primary Education. Furthermore, there are not enough institutional or private offers of in-service training music courses. Finally, fulltime teachers engage in their profession for 42 hours per week, making it difficult for them to attend extended in-service music courses. As a consequence of these facts, even when music is highly regarded, as in the Chilean Primary education curricular design, it remains unsystematically approached by teachers with neither music training nor an initial formation in music pedagogy.

In order to cover this educational shortcoming, we have developed EducaMus, an online platform intended to host massive open courses (MOOC) devoted to pre-service music training in the Chilean educational system. At this moment, EducaMus includes a software solution for this goal called Music Training for General Teachers, which has software associated for real-time music practice.

Its construction has followed the model of design science research methodology as a framework, with its corresponding process elements: 1) problem identification, which detects needs and constructs a theoretical framework; 2) construction, responsible for development, analysis, experimentation, and observation; and 3) evaluation, providing for testing and for designing the first public version [2].

The novelty of this course consists in the integration of associated software – namely Cantus, Tactus, and MusiPuzzles – that facilitate music production activities such as singing and tapping rhythms. These activities are assessed in real-time by the computer [3] [4]. This proves beneficial for the pupils, who get an immediate evaluation of their performing, and for music teachers, as well, because assessment is one of the most time-consuming and complicated tasks in music-education. This work in progress describes EducaMus and its components.

References:
[1] Ministry of Education of Chile (2015). Base de datos Docentes Cargos 2015. (Data base of docents and positions) Unidad de Estadísticas, Centro de Estudios, División de Planificación y Presupuesto. Retrieved from: https://goo.gl/JhU9mT
[2] Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M. & Chatterjee, S. (2007). A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research. Journal of Management Information Systems, 24(3), 45–77.
[3] Pérez-Gil, M., Tejada, J., Morant, R. y Pérez, A. (2016) Cantus. Construction and evaluation of a software for real-time vocal music training and musical intonation assessment for music education. Journal of Music, Technology and Education 9:2. 125-144. doi: 10.1386/jmte.9.2.125_1
[4] Tejada, J., Pérez-Gil, M. y Pérez, R. (2011) Tactus: Didactic Design and Implementation of a Pedagogically Sound Based Rhythm-Training Computer Program. Journal of Music, Technology and Education, 3: 2+3, pp. 155–165. doi: 10.1386/jmte.3.2-3.155_1.

Keywords:

Music education, music technology, open online courses, pre-service music training, b-learning online platform, non-music teachers.