Facilitating musical composition as ‘contract learning’ in the classroom: the development and application of a teaching resource for primary school teachers in the UK

Abstract

Despite national initiatives in the UK such as Creative Partnerships, an organization formed in 2002 for exploring creative approaches to learning in the classroom, there is still a gap between aspiration and practice. This is especially evident in the teaching of musical composition in primary schools, partly because there seems to be a profound fear of music, especially for many primary school teachers who are not music specialists, and a lack of knowledge of participatory practice. This article describes the development of a resource for facilitating compositional processes using classroom management skills, as adapted from Knowles’s ‘contract learning’. I will also highlight the creative tensions raised by the sometimes conflicting approaches of instruction and facilitation.