Developing an interactive workbook and online resources for recorder teaching and learning in Maltese primary schools

Abstract

This project attends to the immediate need to rethink how recorder playing could provide opportunities for shaping music education in Maltese primary schools, specifically in Years Four, Five and Six. This is significant, because to date, there are no established opportunities and resources that enhance the teaching of recorder playing, along with the fundamentals of music in the music education curriculum. In this project-based dissertation, an interactive workbook and a set of online resources for recorder teaching and learning in Maltese primary schools were created. This interactive workbook is intended to offer a structured way as to how the music teacher can integrate the music attainment targets highlighted in the Maltese Music curriculum. The workbook includes tasks featuring individual and ensemble playing in line with the current Music curriculum in Malta. Additionally, short musical excerpts from traditional folk Maltese music, feature in the workbook. In short, the workbook and the research that underpin it, will offer Maltese students an educational framework for individual and ensemble recorder playing, that for the first time takes into consideration not only the latest pedagogical and research methods but also the distinctive character of life in Malta. The workbook provides support to the emerging trends in Music education. The potential impact of creative digital technologies on music pedagogy in the twenty-first century has fundamentally changed music making, sharing, teaching and learning. By embedding digital technologies in recorder solo and ensemble playing in the music classroom, the teaching and learning environment can be upgraded to a more avant-garde setting in an effective, appropriate and collaborative way. The online resources, complement the material provided in the workbook through backing tracks and play-along videos, which ensure self-learning experiences that support the attainment targets in the Maltese Music curriculum.