The Music Curriculum in Primary Schools and its Effects on Teachers and Pupils

This paper examines the basic features of the music curriculum in the primary schools in order to improve the music education within the reality of the worldwide educational society. Music curriculum aims to: enhance the knowledge, to improve and expand pupils’ cognitive and artistic skills, reinforce the collaborative learning, and evaluate the different levels of understanding. Hence, the music curriculum must be seen as an adaptive interface, which couples teacher and pupil’s behaviours and attitudes, shaping a common interactive field. Based on this framework, there is a changing landscape, which affects the role of the music teacher from the traditional imparter of knowledge to the active assistant who facilitates, advises, motivates and guides the pupils based on the creative characteristics of the music curriculum. Moreover, the pupil changes from a passive recipient to an active participant within the classroom (school-society), receiving knowledge and simultaneously formulating his/her perspectives by creating, inventing, and inquiring. The wide varieties of musical activities, such as composition, performance, listening and appraising are influenced from the music curriculum, underpinning alongside the relationship between the music teacher and the pupils. In the same vein, new challenged ideas that include the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the area of music education are amplified; supporting the collaborative learning across the pupils through the music curriculum that in turns, acts as an interface between the music teacher and the pupil, which reinforces the musical activities within the classroom. Consequently, the careful design of a music curriculum that adaptively couples music teachers with pupils can establish an innovative didactic landscape with many beneficial effects in the music education.