A Reflective Lens: Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice | Page 23

A Reflective Lens:
Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice

Discussion

From the field notes gathered throughout the five lesson
observations and students’ responses in the small group
interviews and the reflection journal, I found that cooperative learning structure helped in facilitating group
composition activities. Although the end product, i.e. the
performance quality, varied from group to group in a class
of mixed musical abilities, what was more important was the
notable snippets of conversations and behaviours captured,
transpiring from students’ collaboration in a group.
The findings can be categorised into these three themes:
1. Social-emotional learning and development of 21st
Century Competencies
2. Enhancement of students’ musical understanding
3. Development of students’ leadership capacity

Social-Emotional Learning and Development of 21st
Century Competencies
The nature of the tasks allowed students opportunity for
responsible decision-making; from choosing the roles of
the group members to the actual composition activities.
Students were given opportunities to plan how they
would want to solve their composition task. It was rather
interesting how the two groups, Group 1 and Group 2,
adopted different approaches to solve their composition
tasks. Although they adopted different strategies to
complete their compositions, they ultimately displayed
quality control, wanting the best outcome for their group.

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