Teachers In Elementary Music Education

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Situation Analysis

Teachers in the elementary years are anticipated of doing a nobler task of setting the foundation for the young learners. They are the teachers who teach the necessary learning skills in order for them to survive in the higher grades. In this regard, elementary teachers are known to be generalists, meaning, they teach all subjects in their respective grade assignments including music and they build the road they are going to tread in the future.

In the educative process, the foundation of education for every learner, which is the elementary level, is the most crucial stage of the students’ educational endeavors, it is because in this the stage the potentials of a person is being developed and enhanced.

In the field of music education, the classroom teacher is designed to bring out the natural musicianship of all children. According to Hackett (2007), music instruction must be offered and available to all children, and that “Music for Every Child-Every Child for Music” must be the motto at the elementary level. Hence, teachers in the elementary should be well trained musician. Becoming musician however, requires time and effort, the growth and development will be largely self-directed.

In the different parts of the world, our teachers in the primary education are generalists and they are the only teachers of music. As a result of this scenario, the schools are less than adequate in the elementary music programs since there has been a claim that the generalist teachers lack confidence, training and the necessary skills to implement an effective music program. So this calls for a music training program for our generalist elementary teachers who teach music as cited by Wiggins and Wiggins (2008) that just as music should be taught for all children, music should be for all

This is one way of improving music education because teachers tend to teach the way they were taught when they were still students.

The factors for setting musicality are revealed in the research of Daniels (2012). Based on the findings of his study, the factors that affects the musical sight reading ability of the students are: presence of piano at home; a rural school who occasionally use rote procedure to teach music; large percentage of choir students who participated in all-state chorus; large proportion of choir students with experiences in playing a musical instrument; and a large high school with a chorus teacher who believes in the importance of sight reading instruction in the high school chorus. It is not a wonder then that the Music Educators of National Conference in the US advocate the creation of the National Standard for Music Education along rhythm through reading and notating. The Department of Education (2012) of the Philippines also set a K-12 Curriculum guide for music and the skills that should be developed along rhythm are through reading, listening and performing (composing, playing instrument,