Curricula
A new Music National Curriculum has been designed by a committee consisting of two academics appointed by the Cypriot Ministry of Education and Culture, 12 in-service primary and secondary teachers, 2 music specialists for pre-primary school working in the public university and 3 music inspectors.
The new Music National Curriculum is an open, flexible and negotiable document and gives the opportunity to the teacher to take his/her own decisions in what to teach, when and how, emphasising on the development of musical skills, the cultivation of positive attitudes and behaviours and the acquisition of musical knowledge. The new curriculum also promotes informal learning practices, cooperative learning and learning by doing and it supports, among others, collaborative school-community projects and cultural actions.
How does the new Music National Curriculum differ from previous curricula?
1. It is a Unified Curriculum from kindergarten to the First year of Lyceum (12 grades), whereas before there was a separate curriculum for kindergarten, another for primary school, another for secondary school and a separate one for the first year of lyceum.
2. The 12 grades of schooling are grouped into 4 levels, which foster a “smoother” transition between pre-primary, primary and secondary education and allow the teacher to be flexible.
3. It is an open curriculum, with flexible structures, ensuring teachers’ professional autonomy and allowing space for the teachers and students to negotiate the curriculum and organize the lessons based on teachers’ interests and the interests and needs of students. The new curriculum is definitely not put in practice through chapters of specific music textbooks as it was the case before, but it promotes multiple educational materials and the selection-synthesis through a variety of resources.
4. The new curriculum makes suggestions in regards to concepts to be taught and skills to be developed, grouped in the four levels mentioned earlier and not referring to each grade, like previous curricula did. 5. It gives greater emphasis on skills development, starting methodically from kindergarten. The new curriculum underlines the importance of teaching children to sing, play a musical instrument, develop active listening skills and develop improvisation and composition skills.
6. For the first time in a Cypriot music curriculum, teachers are given in a separate part, suggestions in regards to attitudes and behaviors related to the activities of listening, performance and composition that students should cultivate through Music.
7. The new National Curriculum invites teachers to organize their lessons, not only around musical concepts, as hitherto the largest portion of teachers of Primary and Secondary education did, but also through the organization of their units around open topics that connect knowledge and skills acquired by our students about the rudiments of music with music as a form of communication, with both the natural and human environment as well as with their inner world. Intentionally, the thematic units suggested in the curriculum document are general enough for the teacher to be able to adapt and enrich each time, depending on the level, needs and interests of students / teachers / school.
8. In the curriculum document suggested teaching methodologies are presented, based on current trends in music teaching.
9. The curriculum highlights the active participation of students in a variety of musical environments and experiences and deliberately delays, compared with the previous curriculum, the introduction of music notation at early ages, underlining the approach "sound before symbol", at all levels.
10. It promotes cooperation with the community through a variety of activities inside and outside school, artists in school etc.
11. It promotes the introduction of informal learning practices in the music lesson. It also stresses the importance of taking into consideration when organizing the lessons students’ music preferences (see www.musicalfutures.org).
12. It gives concrete examples of current assessment tools that can be used in the music lesson, ensuring authentic assessment.
13. It promotes the use of music technology by both the teacher and the students, offering teachers specific suggestion for each level.
The new Music National Curriculum will be piloted in primary and secondary schools in 2011-2013. It will soon be translated in English and the link will be added in Cyprus EAS webpage.
You can find the New Music National Curriculum in the official website of the Cypriot Music Education.