A comparative study of primary/ elementary school music curricula in Australia (NSW), in the UK (England), in the Russian Federation and in the United States of America
type: CreativeWork
description: In different countries, the music curricula for primary/ elementary school children has been influenced by many diverse factors including a number of progressive educational practices and a variety of psychological theories. This research gives a detailed analysis of a number of primary/ elementary school programs for general music in Australia (New South Wales, i.e. NSW), in the UK (England), in the Russian Federation and in the United States of America. The research aims to find out to what extent music education in different countries is based on or follows psychological theories of child development and progressive educational practices. Firstly, to acquire an adequate understanding of child education this research examines the philosophical roots of primary/ elementary education and a set of psychological ideas of Piaget and Vigotsky about the nature of children and the nature of knowledge. This provides insight of how children learn (the nature of learning) and the role of the teacher in learning music. Secondly, the research examines the musical content of the syllabae (the nature of subject). It critically compares the following components of curricula and syllabae: philosophy, objectives and contents including musical concepts, activities and music repertoire. This is then subjected to further analysis examining these contents in relation to theories of child development (Piaget and Vigotsky) and traditional and progressive educational practices (where it is applicable). Finally, a questionnaire is aimed at primary school teachers in NSW. These teachers are generalist teachers, there are no specialist music teachers employed as such in public primary schools in NSW. Music is taught in the NSW primary schools by class teachers. The problem is that NSW university faculties of education do not train music teachers as specialists at primary level. They only train generalist teachers. In other countries the situation is different. There are music specialists in …
abstract: In different countries, the music curricula for primary/ elementary school children has been influenced by many diverse factors including a number of progressive educational practices and a variety of psychological theories. This research gives a detailed analysis of a number of primary/ elementary school programs for general music in Australia (New South Wales, i.e. NSW), in the UK (England), in the Russian Federation and in the United States of America. The research aims to find out to what extent music education in different countries is based on or follows psychological theories of child development and progressive educational practices. Firstly, to acquire an adequate understanding of child education this research examines the philosophical roots of primary/ elementary education and a set of psychological ideas of Piaget and Vigotsky about the nature of children and the nature of knowledge. This provides insight of how children learn (the nature of learning) and the role of the teacher in learning music. Secondly, the research examines the musical content of the syllabae (the nature of subject). It critically compares the following components of curricula and syllabae: philosophy, objectives and contents including musical concepts, activities and music repertoire. This is then subjected to further analysis examining these contents in relation to theories of child development (Piaget and Vigotsky) and traditional and progressive educational practices (where it is applicable). Finally, a questionnaire is aimed at primary school teachers in NSW. These teachers are generalist teachers, there are no specialist music teachers employed as such in public primary schools in NSW. Music is taught in the NSW primary schools by class teachers. The problem is that NSW university faculties of education do not train music teachers as specialists at primary level. They only train generalist teachers. In other countries the situation is different. There are music specialists in …
author: Petrova, Irina
language: EN
keywords: music, instruction and study, education, philosophy
license: https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/
date published: 2005
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:32:14Z
provider: University of New South Wales
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: UNSW, Sydney

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/23330

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.26190/unsworks/23134