What do the views of children, teachers and inspectors about the quality of a school's music provision have in common, or are they all different? A trained expert visited ten primary schools, and her judgements about the music provision for children aged 10–11 were compared with those of the teachers, the children's views about music at the school, and the judgements reported in the school's most recent published inspection report. It was the children, particularly the boys, who agreed most closely with the expert. The judgements of the expert and the inspectors were broadly consonant, but the generalisation in the inspection writing led to its requiring a careful read if weaknesses in some schools' provision for Year 6 were to be detected. While there was general agreement between the expert and the teachers over children's attainment in the more effective schools, the judgements of the teachers were seriously awry in schools that neglected an aspect of the National Curriculum, typically composing. At present, inspectors routinely survey the views of parents and carers, but not those of pupils. The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), the government department responsible for the inspection of schools in England, is currently considering some limited use of older secondary pupils' views as inspection evidence. The evidence of the research described in this paper is that younger children, in Year 6, could usefully be involved in providing inspection evidence. Indeed, it is possible that they may prove to be rather better ‘inspectors’ than older children, and also than some of their teachers.

Differentiation is a key concept in the Cypriot music curriculum, last revised in 2010. This paper aims to investigate teachers’ interpretation and implementation of differentiation in their music classrooms. Interviews with Cypriot classroom music teachers and focus groups with their students took place within the context of a larger research project that investigated how elements of the Cypriot music curriculum were interpreted and applied by teachers and how this pedagogy in turn influenced students’ motivation. Interviews were carried out with eight music teachers. Differentiation, as understood and implemented by these Cypriot music teachers, differed in fundamental ways to differentiation as conceptualised in academic literature concerned with this concept. These findings may serve as a point of reflection for future professional development in Cyprus relating to differentiation and its implementation.

Global colonialism and continuing post-colonial influences caused widespread cultural change at the interface of different cultures. Musical acculturation can be observed in most colonised countries. Some pro-colonialists apologetically allege that through colonisation the colonised territories would receive developmental aid and economical benefits. If this was the case, did Korean music education also benefit from Japanese colonisation as is commonly claimed? And also, was Korean school music acculturated by the Japanese curriculum? To answer these questions, I scrutinised the intentions of colonial Korean music education through interviewing 42 witnesses who attended primary schools of the time, simultaneously analysing school activities such as morning assembly and the military draft, both of which show musical content. The interviews focused in particular on the day-to-day life at school, pedagogic content and impacts of colonial education on pupils’ later life and cultural identity.

Through micro-genetic analysis of early singing, I describe and explain the complexity of song as an elementary cultural expression. For educators, it is important to understand the key role of song with and by young children as a means to convey feelings and musico-linguistic rules. Song consists of melody and lyrics, both of which are connected by metrical rules to form a Gestalt. A song sung by 18-month-old Lynn exemplifies that she produces the melody with ease, but shows difficulty forming the words. By following rules, she forms and expresses feelings of belonging to those who shared their singing with her previously.

This article evaluates the impact of volunteering with a music education project for children and adults with learning disabilities on the professional development and career trajectory of music students at a Conservatoire in the United Kingdom. A mixed-methods online questionnaire captured the impact of volunteering with Melody Music Birmingham. Findings suggest that volunteering was a powerful aspect of the respondents’ learning, potentially influencing their career choices, perceptions and attitudes. Further training and experiences for Conservatoire students in engaging with, supporting, and delivering music-making for people with learning disabilities are recommended.

Music education is an eclectic field of study, and those concerned with questions of musical learning and teaching draw upon a variety of disciplines including psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, ethnomusicology, and music therapy. For this Special Issue, we have asked leading scholars within these disciplines to share insights on how their research area might contribute to a greater understanding of the learning and teaching of music. Our aim and theirs is to communicate recent developments in the disciplines to music educators, and hopefully to stimulate in the pages of BJME a dialogue with colleagues in related fields of interest.

Pestalozzi and Froebel were innovatory educators whose influence has spread widely and stood the test of time. They believed education to be a process of drawing out and exercising a child's own powers in order to achieve the fullest possible development of the whole person. Physical, intellectual, emotional and aesthetic capacities would only be developed effectively in interdependence rather than isolation, the child being essentially an active participant in his/her own education. In this article the principles and values which Pestalozzi and Froebel believed to befundamental to sound education are related to the task of teaching in general, to the teaching of music in particular, and to music as a unique medium of education through which those principles may be demonstrated.

In January, as we were in the final stages of putting together this issue of BJME, we learned of the death of Dick Addison. He was among the first in this country to produce books on children's musical creativity and the impact of his work in music education was very widely felt. Andrew Cresswell writes:

The rationale for this article lies in a perceived need for instrumental teaching to take on positively some of the opportunities that the National Curriculum represents; in particular, the need for music-centred approaches encompassing improvising, composing and appraising as central activities in instrumental lessons in addition to performing. Its background is the belief that traditional approaches to instrumental teaching have tended to favour development of technical skills in preference to imaginative responses to musical encounters. Pragmatic realities as well as potential curriculum benefits now demand a shared outlook from class and instrumental teachers who have tended to travel on different, if parallel, tracks. This article provides a tentative model for instrumental learning in the National Curriculum which will enable the unique character of what instrumental music has to offer to be maintained whilst enriching it with wider curriculum perspectives. Note: Throughout this article instrumental teaching refers to that provision offered by specialist teachers whether of instruments of the Western classical tradition, those of non- Western cultures, or of the pop, rock, jazz or folk traditions. Exemplars are indicative only and are not drawn from specific cases. It is intended that readers will interpret exemplars according to their own particular instrumental specialism.

This study discusses the deaf person's physical potential to perceive music, and also looks at the technical aids that can increase this capacity. A survey of educational approaches, ranging from preschool to adult education, reveals that the initial step of enjoyable noise-making links them all. Non-musical benefits gained from musical involvement are outlined, and finally the issue of aesthetic appreciation is addressed. How much can music mean to a deaf person?

The author describes a project which was created to encourage communication, through music and drama, between mainstream sixth form pupils and a local Special School. The course was offered as part of the Certificate of Pre- Vocational Education of the Joint Board of City and Guilds/B. Tech. and was open to all sixth form students irrespective of their musical expertise or experience. None had previously worked with handicapped children.

Dorothy Tipton is Head of Music at the Rowena School for Girls, Sittingbourne. Her interest in Special School work was awakened during a Diploma in Music Education course at Christ Church College, Canterbury, resulting in a dissertation on ‘Music in the Mainstream Classroom for children with Special Needs’ (1985). During this research close and lasting links were developed with the local Special School for the severely handicapped, St Bartholomew's School, Milton, Kent. In March 1988, project cards for Music non-specialist primary school teachers Exploring Sounds and Themes, devised by Dorothy Tipton, Alan Vincent and Vanessa Young, were published by Kent Education Committee.

The requirements of the National Curriculum in England make it compulsory for all students training for primary teaching to take curriculum courses in all the core and foundation subjects and RE. [Music is a foundation subject established in 1992 and revised in 1995.] The need to make this type of course stimulating and encouraging has been a major concern for many years. This article describes one course that is designed to meet these needs. Students' evaluations of the course have been very favourable. This has encouraged the writer to share the experience with others in the field and seek constructive criticism. The course, in this form, ran first in 1992–3.

The attainment of Zimbabwean independence in 1980 resulted in a variety of pressures on the curriculum for the education of music teachers. These pressures included dissatisfaction with the Eurocentric bias of the existing curriculum and demands for shifting the bias of education towards the promotion of previously marginalised aspects of Zimbabwean culture. This paper outlines the effects of these pressures on curricular innovations in Zimbabwean traditional music at Hillside Teachers' College, Bulawayo, and explores the possibilities for the future development of traditional music curriculum.

The author reflects on his work with music teachers and students during three weeks in Buenos Aires in November 1994.

During the past several years Dr Harvey has presented seminars on ‘Music and the Brain’ throughout the United States and Canada. In the course of a weekend seminar in 1985 he was, once again, particularly impressed with the power of music to affect individuals in many different ways; musical performances (live and taped) evoked responses as diverse as excitement, tears, loneliness, increases in pulse rate, changes in breathing rate, spontaneous body movement, memory recall and imagery experiences. To understand just how the brain produces both biophysical and psychological responses to music requires a basic understanding of the human brain, the areas of the human personality affected through brain processes, and an awareness of the interactions of musical elements affecting us. In this article Dr Harvey outlines some of the directions of recent research.