A Reflective Lens: Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice | Page 34

Co-operative Learning Structure in Group Music Composition

critical thinking. This will also equip teachers to be better
lesson facilitators. If we are able to conduct student-centric
lessons in our classroom, our music lessons will not only
enhance students’ musical understanding but also allow
them to internalise their learning and develop their socialemotional competencies (SEC) and 21CC. For example, if
we continuously get our students to reflect on their own
actions and decisions over a course of time, not only will
our students have a deeper understanding of the content
but they will also likely be more reflective and critical in
their thinking.
Finally, I strongly encourage music teachers in the fraternity
to try out similar activities of co-operative learning simply
as the students themselves gain the most out of enjoying
the learning process. At the end of this study, I realised that
there is so much learning taking place during these group
composition activities and truly, this has countered my initial
reservations about teaching music composition. I now believe
that through music lessons, we can impart students with 21st
Century Competencies to prepare them for the future.

We get together to work on the task and
we can hear different, funny and better
ideas from each other.
[Student G, Reflection Journal]

We all had fun and enjoyed
ourselves very much while
composing the song.
[Student B, Reflection Journal]

I learnt something; you will never know you can
if you never try. We succeeded in solving the
problems by telling each other’s mistake and
asking them to improve.
[Student C, Reflection Journal]

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