Music is Movement
A Study in to Aspects of Movement Representation of
Musical Activities among Preschool Children in a Dutch Music Educational Setting.
Researcher: Dr. José Retra, (PhD Universiteit van Exeter, Graduate school of Education) Supervisors: Dr. Susan Young en Sue Chedzoy
The purpose of this study was to investigate aspects of movement representation of music of children aged 18 months to 36 months that occur during a regular Dutch early childhood music education course. Musical representation was considered in this study to be the representation through movement of stored and incoming musical information.
Het MiM project is tot stand gekomen in samenwerking met de St. Peuters & Muziek. Het doel was de bevordering van de theorie vorming betreffende de muzikale ontwikkeling van kinderen in de voorschoolse leeftijd. Nieuwe kennis zal vertaald worden naar de praktijk en de bedoeling is dat de docent op de werkvloer hier zoveel mogelijk van profiteert.
Hartelijk dank aan alle ouders en kinderen die hebben meegewerkt.
The MiM Project has been realised in cooperation with the Dutch Foundation for Toddlers and Music. The aim was the furthering of theory development concerning musical learning of children in the preschool age. New knowledge will be translated to practice. This research project has almost finished. However, many interesting topics have emerged to investigated further.
Many thanks to all the parents and children who have participated in this project.
This research project was actually initiated by the son of a friend. We were singing a traditional song with many movements to go along with the song. Always when the song was finished - it was repeated many times - he made one movement. He could have chosen any other movement from the song but he chose this one and always demonstrated it after the song. This evoked my interest in finding out what was happening. What is the role of movement in the songs we present to the children during music courses? Dutch Preschool Music Education (PME), also known as Music on the Lap, provides music lessons for children from the age of 4 months to 4 years accompanied by a parent or carer, including grandparents. Courses are held not only at music schools but also in community centres. Lessons are given in larger groups at playgrounds and day care centres. The aim is to motivate and stimulate the children according to their own level of possibilities and development. The goal is to let children acquire the basic skills of music by means of a programme strongly underpinned by appropriate theory. Out of motivation comes participation, participation evokes musical experiences.
The purpose of my study was to investigate the development of movement representation of music of children aged 18 months to 36 months that occurs during a normal Dutch early childhood music education course. Musical representation is considered in this study to be the representation through movement of incoming musical information and musical information in memory.
MyPlace: MyMusic is a collaborative project between members of the ISME, ECME Commission which will culminate in a symposium at the 2010 ISME Conference in Beijing.
The aim of the project is to increase understanding of the types of everyday home-based musical activities in which seven-year-old children from internationally diverse locations are typically involved, their partners in those activities, the roles taken, for how long, where and with what resources.
The project is based on the rationale that everyday activities and interactions are key to development and that they cannot be understood without detailed reference to the individual children who are involved in them and the various contexts in which those activities are situated.
The principle of a collective and collaborative approach to research is central to the project. Each participant undertakes to contribute one set of data from their location. All the data will be combined and distributed to each participant in the project. Each participant thereby has access to a larger and more internationally diverse body of data than they would be able to achieve single-handedly. While some analysis will proceed along collaboratively agreed lines of enquiry, individual researchers will also have the opportunity to follow their own lines of interest. It is anticipated that the project will give rise to a quantity of individual and co-authored presentations and publications at both national and international levels.
Coordination: Susan Young (University of Exeter), Beatriz Ilari (Federal University of Paraná), Chee Hoo Lum, (Technological University, Singapore), Elizabeth Andango (Kenyatta University, Kenya)
Participants: Anna Rita Addessi (Università di Bologna), Diane Cummings Persellin (Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas), Ruta Girdzijauskiene (University of Klaipeda, Lithuania), Claudia Gluschankof (Levisnky College of Education, Tel-Aviv), Sven-Erik Holgersen (Danish University of Education, Copenhagen), Theano Koutsoupidou (University of the Aegean, Rhodes), Jennifer Leu (National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan), Elizabeth MacKinlay (University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia), Jose Retra (Foundation for Music and Toddlers, Netherlands)