Today's education systems and ways of teaching are rapidly changing and improving.
As our ways of life and value systems change, so does the education in its purpose and methods.
In Korea, teaching piano has been a widespread method of familiarizing...
Today's education systems and ways of teaching are rapidly changing and improving.
As our ways of life and value systems change, so does the education in its purpose and methods.
In Korea, teaching piano has been a widespread method of familiarizing young children to music and is recognized as an essential part of emotional and psychological development of children.
However, it is an undeniable fact that piano education so far has only focused on training for physical skills and techniques through repetitive exercises.
The reason that many students easily give up on learning the instrument in spite of improving teaching materials is the lack of variety in teaching methods.
In this thesis, group lesson that can be carried out concurrent to individual lessons and its detailed teaching and learning plan is introduced.
The teaching plan is based on the group lesson focused on exploration of sounds, experiencing and expressing music with body, and using games in understanding musical concepts that are necessary in the elementary level.
The results of the lessons that applied the teaching plan were reflected in students showing higher interest in the lessons and easier understanding of the concepts. The students also displayed more creativity in activities such as improvisation and composition, and showed improvements in rhythm and listening during individual lessons.
The thesis also reports on the survey among 100 teachers in Seoul and Gyeonggi area on their familiarity with group lessons and their sentiment on the necessity of group lessons.
The survey showed that 80% of the teachers surveyed only participate in one-on-one lessons, and feel the necessity of additional teaching tools and methods such as games in order to improve the level of understanding and interest among elementary level students, but they have not yet put them to use due to lack of practical knowledge.
The results revealed that the teachers understand the need for group lessons and there is high demand for instruction manuals, teaching plans and tools that are developed solely for group lessons.
Music education needs to be a personal experience that involves searching and exploring the sound itself before playing a piece that has been written by someone else. In order to teach music the way it needs to be taught, a comprehensive teaching method must be introduced that incorporates group lessons to develop musical intuition and encourage fun ways to learn musical concepts rather than only relying on one-on-one lessons.
This thesis, although many limitations were present, finds its importance in revealing that group lessons, when applied in practice, have positive influence on students.