Opening The Doors To Creativity: A Pre-Service Teacher Experiment

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to document the compositional processes of pre-service teachers enrolled in a course entitled Creativity in the Music Classroom in an effort to contribute to the growing body of knowledge in this area as well as to encourage other tertiary-level teachers to introduce similar courses into the pre-service music teacher curriculum. The study charted the progress of nine students as they completed three individual composition tasks, one of which involved acoustic instruments and two of which were completed in the music computer lab. Data collection techniques consisted of observations, informal conversations with students and document analysis. Analysis consisted of studying the material culture and field notes, making marginal notes, sorting and coding. Student compositional processes were found to parallel those of participants in earlier research in that exploration, incubation/inspiration and revision were employed in varying degrees throughout. Prior music training, skills and knowledge were found to be both enabling and constraining influences whereas the open and trusting classroom atmosphere was noted by students as nurturing. Evidence of student compositional progress was demonstrated by increasing fluency of each successive student product.