Browsing by Author "Weckroth, Otso"

Aims. The present national core curriculum of Finnish comprehensive school highlights creative music making, such as improvising and composing, as one of the main contents and aims of music education. Firstly, the primary aim of this research is to study how music teachers conceptualize creative music making and what kind of meanings they give for creative music making in elementary school context. Secondly, the study explores what are teachers' perceptions of their qualifications on teaching creative music making, and where they view that the qualifications originated from. Finally, the study finds out what kind of support are teachers getting for teaching creative music making, and what kind of obstacles are preventing them from teaching creative music making. Methodology. This research is a qualitative case study. It is based on five thematic interviews with teachers who teach music in elementary school. The analysis of the data includes features from content analysis and fenomenographic analysis. Results and conclusions. The interviewees expressed diverse conceptions about creative music making and their conceptions were similar to the forms of creative music making highlighted in previous literature and theory. The interviewees were able to adapt the exercises for different age levels. Furthermore, they experienced creative music making as a meaningful part of music education for multiple reasons. According to the interviewees, creative music making improved learning skills, joy of learning and skills of thought. It also strengthen the active role and creative self-expression of the pupil. Interviewees also highlighted the transfer effect of the creative music making. It was also experienced meaningful for grouping and developing social atmosphere. However, all the interviewees experienced their qualification for teaching creative music making at least partially insufficient. Qualifications were more often originated from hobbies and from prior work experience than from university education. Almost all of the interviewees experienced that new teaching material and updating training is needed. In addition, the interviewees experienced that the lack of resources in time, environment and equipment were obstacles for teaching creative music making. Also, the competence of the teachers and group related factors were seen as obstacles for creative music making. The study highlights that there is a need to pay more attention to the material and time resources as well as to teachers receiving better university level training for teaching creative music.