Sidnee McLeod

Dr. Veblen
Music 1800A
December 12th, 2015
Reading: Stavrou
Stavrou, N. E. (2013). Fostering musical creativity in pre-service teacher education: Challenges and
possibilities. International Journal of Music Education, 31(1), 35-52.
doi:10.1177/0255761411431391
This article focuses on a study that was conducted on about 61 student teachers. One of the
main problems in the elementary schools now is that generalist teachers feel like they do not need/have
musical abilities to teach a music class, and are not real music teachers. This then causes them to lose
their confidence and not take risks in the class to make it interesting for the students to engage in their
creativity. Stavrou writes about this study, and how its main goal was not to make musicians out of the
student teachers, but to give them a positive perspective on Music Education and its importance. It also
allowed the teachers to discover creativity and music skills within them and give them confidence to not
play it safe in the classroom and actually create a dynamic environment, even with the little
experience they have with music. The student teachers were to participate in different musical
activities, and in the end, perform in groups of eight to nine people with their sound stories. Results
of the whole process was analyzed in the journals, answers to the questionnaires, and final
performances of the students. Overall, it was found as a positive experience.

One of the interesting parts of the reading that I really liked was just examining the study
involving the sound stories. It allowed me to see the process of some non-music students, and their
journey with music. Throughout the process, it was clear when their beliefs of musical creativity
changed, and it was amazing to see how music has such a positive effect, especially in the classroom.
They were able to discover things about themselves, and they had a lot of amazing connections with one
another and music. As well, they also had some negative experiences and frustrations with each other
and within the whole process of this study. This was good, because it proved that they were having a
direct experience of the creative process, which is composed of both enjoyable parts and struggles.
Once they realized that this was the creative process, it could be applied to any part of the classroom,
but especially music. It is a good concept to experience and understand, and I think that it showed them
that music is an important subject like all other subjects; it uses the creative process as well.
I was surprised by the amount of musical classes that a generalist teacher gets in their university
career. The fact that it is only one class, and it totals to 39 hours, is a complete shock to me. When you
consider the hours that a musician or a music educator puts into studying Music, 39 hours is definitely
not enough time to learn the important parts of music. That is such an extreme imbalance when
comparing music to all of the other subjects; it has worth to it, it encourages creativity and the creative
process, and collaboration. If educators were only to have 39 hours of Mathematical Education or
Science, they would definitely not be considered qualified to teach that subject by any standard. This
not only emphasizes the imbalance that is placed on the subject of music, but it also encourages others
to not think of it as much because they only have to endure it for a total of 39 hours of class.
Speaking of significance, I was frustrated at the end of the study by the comments of the four
student teachers that did not have as positive of an experience as they could have. They stated that,

you need to have special musical skills to be able to organize and monitor creative music activities in
your class (Stavrou, 2013, p.45). First of all, that is a very ambiguous statement. What defines
special? I think that those students just needed to have more of an open mind and needed to not be
afraid and just have fun, and release their inner creativity. I am sure that they would find something
musical about themselves that they did not know. For example, one girl was able to eventually compose
a small melody on the piano, and she did not even play the piano. All it took was some effort, and that
was all that mattered. I just become frustrated when people seem close minded to music and that it is
only for certain people. I think anyone can do something with it if they try. That brings up the thought of
the imbalance between subjects. If someone does not do well in music or art, many say, thats okay, its
just art, but if someone does not do well in math, they say, youre not trying hard enough. This is just
from my personal experience. We need to learn how to try.
I would ask the author to tell me more about those four student teachers. I understand that it is
important to look at the positives; that so many of the other student teachers gained confidence and
decided that they would incorporate those ideas of music into their classrooms. I want to know,
however, if there was another factor influencing these negative feelings on their experiences. A negative
association? A sad memory? A bad day? Stress? Low self-esteem? It should be that music is enjoyable to
everyone, and that everyone should be able to see the value in it. I want to make it so that all can enjoy
it, including those four student teachers.