International Journal of Music

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Music curriculum development and evaluation based on Swanwick's theory

Liane Hentschke and Alda Oliveira
International Journal of Music Education 1999 os-34: 14
DOI: 10.1177/025576149903400103

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 Music curriculum development and
evaluation based on Swanwick’s theory

Liane Hentschke
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Alda Oliveira
Universidade Federal de Bahia, Brazil

The aim of this article is to describe the study that investigated the possibility
of using Swanwick’s theory as a theoretical framework to develop and evaluate
a music curriculum proposal for primary schools. This project was created

based on the existing evidences that the spiral theory and model could be used
to assess children’s musical products through composing, performing and
listening. This study offers some theoretical and practical contributions for
music education, especially to Brazilian schools and other countries that have
such sharp differences between state and private education sectors. It raises
the question of the adequacy of having one curriculum model that can attend
such different realities, different ways of experiencing music outside schools
that will reflect the way children relate to music, and their preference to one
or more musical parameters.

The context of music education in Brazil

Writing about music education in primary and secondary education in
Brazil to a wide range of world readers is at least a challenge. Perhaps, the
best way to start is by saying that music education as a separate curriculum
subject in primary and secondary education is neither compulsory, not
stated in government guidelines. After the compulsory Orpheonic Singing
movement developed by Heitor Villa-Lobos during the 30’s and 40’s, music
education practices became involved with the arts education movement,
From 1971 on, music classes were substituted by the so called arts edu-
cation, under the philosophy of ’integrated arts’, Nowadays, after almost
three decades, it is possible to observe that, although there were some
guidelines, one could not find a real system working. Although there was
a legal requirement for the three art forms to be taught in primary education,
there was a complete decline in music teaching, as well as an inefficient
teaching of the other art forms. The situation deteriorated during these
years to a point that nowadays only a few schools, most of them private,
offer music education as a separate subject, or offer some extra-curricular
activities such as choirs or instrumental groups.
In the last decade there has been a growing concern among music
professionals to bring back general music education as an independent
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subject to schools. Only recently, educational guidelines for all subjects
were developed as a consequence of the new Educational Law - LDB

(Lej de Diretrizes e Bases cfa EJucapao, December, 1996). This Law

allows some curricular flexibility for the teaching of each art form, y

although it uses the general term ’art’. The document states that, ’arts
education will be a compulsory curricular subject in all levels of basic
education, in order to promote the cultural development of the students’.
(LDB, 1996, Art. 26, Paragrafo S~~gnndc~). As a consequence the govern-
meant guidelines established that each art form (music, drama, visual arts
and dance) should be taught in primary schools but each school can
choose which ones they will offer and who should teach them.
In general terms music education practices reflect the instability gener-
ated at government levels, the lack of confidence music teachers have in
their training, and a general belief that music in schools should only
serve to support other subjects, or to make students happier, healthier,
better, or even only to fill in free time (Hentschke, Oliveira and Souza,
1999). On the other hand, informal music practices are very much alive
in Brazil. As an example the study developed by Oliveira and Costa
Filho (1999), on the subject of music, education and work, demonstrated
ihat around two hundred popular music bands are listed in the city of
Salvador alone. A large number of Brazilian popular musicians arc
developing successful careers. This fact influences many young people
to think more seriously about music as a professional career. Despite
this, Brazilian music education in schools does not yet include music
education structures, experiences and incentives of an informal nature
Therefore, there is still a big gap between formal and informal music
practices in the whole country.
Most Brazilian music education practices do not yet take advantage
of the recent research developed internationally or even of what has
been developed in our six Graduate Programmes in Music Education in
Brazil, Furthermore we lost our music education tradition three decades
ago with the introduction of Arts Education. Currently, Brazilian
researchers in music education are aware of the need to develop more
applied research in order to get acquainted with what is going on both
inside and outside schools in terms of music teaching and learning.

The project
Considering the lack of Brazilian studies and literature in curriculum
development, the authors conceived a project named Music Curriculum
~ovelo~araea~t for~ ~a~o~~~ior~ Primary Sc,]7ools based on Swanwj’c~c’s Theory
of Musical Development. The aim of this project was to investigate the
possibility of using Svaan~rick’s theory as a theoretical framework to
develop and evaluate a music curriculum proposal for primary schools.
This project was created based on the existing evidences that the spiral
theory and model could be used to assess children’s musical products
through composing, performing and listening (Swanwick and Tillman,
1986; Swanwick, 1988, 1994; Hentschke, 1993a, 1993b; Del Ben, 1997;
Hentschke, and Del Ben, 1998; Silva, 1998; Swanwick and Silva, ~.999).

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 The authors were motivated by the lack of longitudinal studies in curricu-
lum development aimed to investigate the feasibility of having formal
music education classes for a wide and complex diversity of people from
varied social and cultural contexts.
As one knows from the literature and from experience, no curriculum
proposal is completely new. All of them have irnplicitly, or explicitly,
influences of other curriculum models, in terms of educational theories,
contents organisations, strategies and cultural contexts. The present pro-
posal can be differentiated from others (DES, 1992, 1995; MNICP, 1970;
Pontious, 1986; PCN, 1996; C~~aara, et al. 1999, among others) in the
sense it has been conceived having a musical developmental theory
as its basis, as well as a model of parameters of musical experiences -
CLASP (Swanwick 1979). As opposed to many music curricula that focus
their attention on a collection of concepts to be developed, this one aims
to develop student’s musical knowledge starting from and in direction
to music. In this case, the direct experience with music is used as an
end and not only as a means to achieve the understanding of certain
musical concepts. In regards to the repertory it offers students a critical
experience on a variety of anusical idioms to which they have access
outside the school environment and towards a presentation of other
musical idioms (western and non-western).
Hargreaves and Zimmerman (1992) claim that Swanwick and Tillman’s
(1986) model of musical development represents the ’first attempt to
make some sense and coherence out of the rapidly growing body of
literature on musical development’ (p.380). It could be said that it is the
first developmental sequence rooted in the comprehensive nature of
musical experience offering a view of what Swanwick calls ’the dimen-
sions of musical criticism’, i.e., the means through which one responds
to music. As different theories are concerned with different explanations,
it is possible to view the spiral theory of musical development as trying
to describe the trajectory of how people come to understand music
within a framework of four dimensions of musical criticism described
by Swanwick as Material, Expression, Form and Value.
This theory is more concerned with how one becomes capable of
approaching music in a critical way, rather than being confined to
describe the acquisition of specific skills. Within these critical dimen-
sions there is a description of specific musical behaviours expected,
which according to the theory, denote the levels of the Musical under-
standing of each individual. Each dimension (stage) has two phases, for
example, the Mc~~~a°ic~~ stage has Sensory and Manipulative phases, each
one representing a wide spectrum of musical development.

Along with the spiral theory, the music curriculum proposal used
Swanwick’s (1979) CLASP model, which consists of the parameters of
musical experiences - composing, performing and listening comple-
mented by technical and literature studies. It also used Oliveira’s (1992
and 1995) concept of ’reaching Structures (TS) and Oliveira and
Hentschke’s (1993) concept of Lesson Plan (LP) based on the teacher’s
educational and cultural knowledge.
From these theoretical conceptions the authors established a practical

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Figure 1 - The Spiral Model of Musical Development

one. This defends that music education should offer students the oppor-
tunity to experience music in a practical way, complemented by the
literature and technical studies (CLASP). This experience has to focus
on the existent music from all cultures as well as the ones created by
the students, as opposed to being centred in abstract concepts to be
learned where music is used to exemplify what is being taught. In other
words the curriculum proposes that the student should always be directly
engaged with music and not only with knowledge about music.
The concept of Teaching Structures (TS) was chosen because it pro-
vides a means for organising music teaching in different spans. TS can
be defined as projects set up without a specific teaching sequence for a
number of music lessons. The planning of the TS always started from a
specific repertory, including the ones suggested by the students. The
repertory was worked through performing and listening and served as a
starting point for composing classes, always trying to encompass the
dimensions of musical criticism predicted by the spiral theory.

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 Theproject was carried out in two quite different geographical sites:
in Porto Alegre, state of Rio Grande do Sul in the sourthern part of
Brazil, and in Salvador, state of Bahia in the northeast of Brazil. It
consisted of a longitudinal study of a cohort type, using qualitative data
gathering techniques such as semi-structured interviews, classroom
reports and lesson plans (Cohen and Manion, 1994). This methodological
option enabled us to assess a curriculum proposal with the same group
of subjects over three consecutive years. The proposal started with stud-
ents in the first grade of primary school and followed them up until the
end of the third grade. Techniques of action research were also employed
since the lesson reports and consecutive data collection were carried out
by the music teacher. With that method it was possible to offer a peda-
gogical practice and minimise the problem of dichotomy between theory
and practice (Andre, 1995). Within this perspective, Stenhouse (1975
p.143), states that, ’all well-founded curriculum research and develop-
ment, whether the work of an individual teacher, of a school, of a group
working in a teachers’ centre or of a group working within the
co-ordinating framework of a national project, is based on the study of
classrooms’.
The sample consisted of eight first grade classes of four schools, two
in Porto Alegre and two in Salvador. In each city two schools were
selected: one private school, mainly attended by high and high-middle
class children. and one state school, mainly attended by low and low-
middle class children, in order to take schools from different social and
economical realities. The schools were chosen based on their willingness
to accept the research project. After defining the schools, two first grade
classes were randomly chosen in each school, a total of four classes in
each city. A brief description of each of the four schools will be presented.

Schools in Porto Alegre

The state school gathered
children from low and low-middle social
classes and offered education from the first to the eighth grade (end of
primary education). The infra-structure was very poor and there was no
specific room for music classes. The school had very few musical instru-
ments, mainly non-pitched percussion instruments. In 1994, at the begin-
ning of the research, each class had around 24 students. The attendance
was very uneven, where in some cases some students left school for one
month and came back afterwards. In this same year, ~2°/® of the students
in both classes were aged 7 to 10 years-old, a gap that had increased by
the third grade when we had students from 9 to 15 years-old. In one of
the classes 45% of the students were repeating the first grade, some for
the second time and others for the third time. The other class had 26%
of its students repeating the year. The private school gathers children
from high, and high-middle social classes, and offers pre-school, primary
and secondary education. The classes were carried out in a room especi-
ally devised for music classes and had a variety of musical instruments,
including percussion (pitched and non-pitc~hcd), recorders and piano.
In 1994 each class started the first grade with 20 students ages ranging

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from 7 to 8 years-old. None of them were repeating the same grade, as

happened in the public school.

Sch®®Is in Salvador
The state school gathers children from low and low-middle social classes
and offers education from pre-school up to the eighth grade. The building
is new and very well kept, being part of a training centre of state school
teachers. There is a play room, a dance and drama room, an auditorium
with good facilities and a good library. There was no specific room for
music classes. The school has a considerable number of percussion
instruments. In 1994, each class had around 25 students, many of them
repeating the same grade. The private school gathers children from high
and high-middle social classes, and offers pre-school through to second-
ary education. The music classes were held in a small auditorium, but
with few resources necessary to carry out the music lessons. It had only
some percussion instruments, accordion and tape recorder. Each class
had an average of 30 students in 1994, and none of them was repeating
the same grade.

Procedures
After selecting the schools and classes, the research team, formed by one
senior researcher and research assistants in each city, carried out the
project which had three phases: first, the writing up of the Main
Curriculum Document (theoretical foundations, aims, objectives, selec-
tion of contents, resources and evaluation), carried out by the two
research co-ordinators (Oliveira and Hentschke, 1993). From the Main
Document, the team started the second phase which involved the plan-
ning of the Teaching Structures (’17S). The TS were different for each city
and, from the second year on, they were different for every school.
However they were always planned in accordance to the Main
Curriculum Document (theoretical and practical framework proposed).
The repertory was chosen according to the specific geographical region,
culture and school, and the musical preferences of the music teacher
and students.
The lessons were carried out once a week in 45 minute sessions by
the research assistants (music teachers), during the academic year (March
to June and August to November). Every year around 30 lessons were
taught in each class. Data was obtained in three ways: first through a
detailed report of every lesson, second, through descriptions of individ-
ual profiles (musical development) in each of the three practical activities
(composing, performing and listening), and third, through the consecu-
tive data gathering of musical products of the three practical activities.
The latter were gathered through group activities developed in a normal
music lesson situation. In other words, children did not know they were
assessed at these specific lessons. The data was taped recorded and later
assessed according to the spiral criteria of musical development.

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Results and discussion
During the three years (1994-1996) the project did not undergo signifi-
cant changes besides the TS planning that had to be adapted for each
school in each city. The theoretical and practical principles remained
the sarne. The planning of the TS always aimed at a balance between
the CLASP parameters considering diagnostic and formative assessments.
According to the MCD - Main Curriculum Document the CLASP param-
eters should be integrated within each lesson, seeking for a mutual
feedback between them.
This research did not aim to be a comparative study strictu sansu,
thus general results are going to be presented separately by each city
with further discussions across the cities. The data regarding the classifi-
cation of musical products according to the spiral criteria were not
submitted to statistical tests due to the low number of groups in each
school. Therefore, they were complemented with the reports of every
lesson and the musical development profile of the students.

Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do S ul

The results of the data collection carried out at the beginning of the
research (first three lessons) in March 1994, showed in both schools the
absence of formal contact with music through the three practical param-
eters of musical experience. No significant differences were found
between the phases in which the musical products were classified
between the two schools. The majority of musical products of both
schools were classified as belonging to the Sensory phase, with the
exception of the composition parameter in the private school where 60%
were classified as belonging to the Manipulative phase. The planning of
the TS and of the Lesson Plans (LP) were always based on these consecu-
tive evaluations and on the lesson report done by the music teacher.
During the second and third data collection of that first year there was
a developmental difference not only between the schools but also
between the three practical parameters. Part of the musical products of
the November 1994 data, were classified as belonging to the Personal
Expressiveness phase. In the private school there was a great develop-
mental balance between the parameters, which did not happen in such
a clear way in the state school.
The second grade data (1995) of the private school, showed some
disparity at the beginning between the parameters where the most devel-
oped was the composition one, and the least the performance, with 50%
of the products classified under the Sensorial phase and 50% under the
Manipulative. In a surprising way, this disparity disappeared as the year
progressed, more specifically in November, when most of the products
of all three parameters were classified under the Personal Expressiveness
phase. The same developmental similarity occurred in the state school
where musical products were classified as being among the Manipulative
and Personal Expressiveness phases.
The third grade data (1996), showed a greater development towards

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more advanced phases of the spiral. The private school data showed a
progressive development towards the Vernacular phase in the three
musical parameters, with some products at the Personal Expressiveness
phase, which is characteristic of this grade. On the other hand, the state
school data presents a greater diversity of phases and stages, despite the
predominance of Personal Expressiveness and Vernacular phases at the
November data collection. One of the probable factors of that irregular
distribution of products between the phases and stages can be attributed
to the presence of new students in this class, who did not previously
have music education. Another factor to be taken into account is that
the age gap between the students ranged from 9 to 14 years old.
The individual profile of every student made by the music teacher
revealed that parts of the products classified in lower developmental
phases came from students that joined the group later on (second or
third grade). If on one hand the level of sample mortality (truancy, grade
repetition, new students) did not allow the continuation of the project,
this brought some evidence that there were significant differences
between the initial sample of students and the ones who joined in later.
However, in order to gather further evidence, a more detailed investi-
gation with a bigger sample would be necessary. Throughout these years
a difference has also been observed between the focus of attention on
musical elements and the growing ability to use technical musical
vocabulary. It could be said that this could have occurred by chance,
but previous research carried out by Hentschke (1993) and Del Ben
(1997), with Brazilian children ages 6 to 14 years old, with no formal
music education, showed a stagnation on the Personal Expressiveness
phase when exposed to audience-listening.
From the data collected it is possible to suggest that the balanced
development between the parameters of musical experience depends not
only of the balanced planning and teaching between the three parameters
but also of other factors such as: a) methodology employed; b) student’s
motivation, and mainly; c) students’ preference for one specific param-
eter. The latter was clearly observed among adolescent students in the
third grade of the state school, who preferred activities involving per-
formance. When investigating the possible causes of that preference it
was found that some students aged 12 to 14 years-old participated in
some local pogode and/or ,sc~mbc~ groups and, as a result had great fluency
in the performance of percussion instruments. During the music lessons
this knowledge and experience gained outside school was incorporated
within the music classes. To exemplify, we could mention one event
that happened in the state school, where there was a student very fluent
in the performance of the pandeiro. music teacher organised a lesson
where this student was asked to teach his colleagues how to perform
this instrument. During the lesson he also ended up suggesting forms of
improvisation, having other percussion instruments joining in. In this
case, summing up the informal experience plus the preference for per-
forming, one can have a possible cause for a greater development on the
performance parameter. This fact did not happen in the private school,
probably due to the age range 9 to 10 years-old during the third grade,
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and also due to the typical informal experiences of the students that is
greatly reduced to passive music listening.
The development of this study in different educational settings raises
the discussion of some important issues for the Brazilian general music
education. In Porto Alegre we worked with two schools, one private and
one state school which represent different scenarios and therefore need

specific music education proposals that fulfil their needs. In the case of
this research the curriculum proposal has been developed in both
schools, requiring from the research group different TS that would suit
each context. However it was found that the theoretical and practical
principles of the curriculum was appropriate to base general music
education for both schools. Whilst at the private school the environment
was more favourable to developing the proposal (good infra-structure,
musical instruments, similar age range, etc.), at the state school, the
lessons were taught in the staff common room, which was located in
front of the playground with lots of noise, with few musical instruments
to work with, a wide age gap (9 to 14 years-old) and a high level of
truancy and grade repetition, among other factors.
Another different aspect between the schools referred to the type of
attitude that students had towards their teachers and towards their peers.
At the private school we had a more settled environment. Most of the
time the students attended to what the teacher asked and they had also
a more positive relation with their peers. They also showed great motiv-
ation towards the activities proposed and towards the suggestions they
used to bring to the music class. At the state school, we had some
recurrent problems which included: a) physical violence, where some-
times the teacher had to stop the music lesson due to fighting between
students within the classroom; b) lack of respect towards the music
teacher and the classroom teacher who sometimes attended the music
lesson; c) anxiety and aggressiveness when manipulating musical instru-
ments ; d) high level of dispersion. These reactions were apparently
contradictory, if we take the classroom teacher report which stated that
every week students were looking forward to having music lessons
because according to them, this was a rare opportunity they had to
express themselves musically and also to speak out their preferences to
do something beyond the constraints of the core subjects. They also
mentioned that they enjoyed music lessons because they could sit more
freely and not behind a classroom table as in other subjects. The research
team recognised that the different pedagogical and didactic approach
between the classroom teacher and the music teacher, may be one of the
causes of such happenings.

Salvador, Bahia
Through the analysis of the state and private school data in Salvador, it
is possible to say that the students developed in a very balanced way
between the different parameters (composing, performing and listening).
In both schools the great majority of students presented products that
were classified at the Manipulative phase. The results of the first data

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collection (1994) of the schools in Salvador also showed children’s lack
of formal contact with systematic engagement with composing, per-
forming and audience-listening. The great majority of musical products,
for both schools were classified as belonging to the Sensory phase, with
the exception of composition in the private school, where 45% of the
products were at the Sensory phase and 55% at the Manipulative one.
At the private school, students presented a normal curve of development
at the composing parameter. They showed a great development in listen-
ing, considering that they started all at the Sensory phase and ended
with a great majority of the products classified under Manipulative. In
performance, the development was not so sharp, remaining at the end
of the year a balance of 50% for each phase (Sensory and Manipulative).
In 1995, in the second grade, the private school students remained at
the same phase in every activity with a slight development. However,
in 1.996 they reached the Vernacular phase in listening, remaining in
composition and performance at the Manipulative phase. In broader
terms, there was a balanced development among the students within
that school, with the predominance of the listening parameter. As far as
the state school students are concerned they also developed in a balanced
way in the three activities, although showing a more acute development
in composition which started with less than 30% in the Manipulative
phase in the first grade (1994), progressing to the Personal Expressiveness
phase at the end of 1995, and maintaining itself at a rate of 50% in 1996.
In listening the students also showed a development, although less than
in composition, because they reached the Personal Expressiveness phase
in the second grade (1995) and stayed there, only later on developing
towards the Vernacular phase. In performance the students reached the
Personal Expressiveness phase at the end of the second grade (1995) and
later regressed to the Manipulative one. Only at the end of the third
grade (1996) did they reach the Personal Expressiveness phase.
Despite the problems faced with student’s attitude, inadequate infra-
structure (acoustical installations, lack of classroom organisation), there
were differences in students’ musical development between the two
schools. Both Salvador schools presented signs of musical development
corresponding to the stages predicted by the spiral criteria of musical
development. However, students of the private school did better at the
listening parameter whilst students of the state school did better in
composition. In both schools, the parameter of performance was the one
least developed. In general students did show high musical aptitudes
and abilities, other than the love for music.
In terms of curriculum implementation, there were many factors that
made the work difficult to be carried out. For example, the great majority
of schools place priority on the preparation for examinations to enter
university and to be ready for professional degrees that have high social
status. Schools normally see music education classes as having specific
functions such as recreation and entertainment. As a consequence, they
do not offer the proper facilities or hire specialised personnel to carry
out good music programmes, thus reflecting that music is not as valued
as other curriculum subjects. In addition, it is possible to point out other

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factors that work against a high standard teaching of music: a) short
duration of the music lesson (45 min. once a week); b) poor infra-
structure ; c) school calendar dictated by school’s administration (for
example, schools festivities, visitors, educational trips or other non-
music activities usually were organised to happen during the scheduled
music lesson); d) high level of sample mortality (as happened in Porto
Alegre), and; e) issues regarding the competence and specific music
abilities of teachers and the efficiency of the methodology employed.
Regarding the repertory, teachers observed that students got more
excited with Brazilian music due to the familiarity with the rhythms
and melodies, mainly the ones that use percussion instruments and fast
tempi. At the state school dance and body movements and other physical
reactions to music were present almost all the time. The close relation-
ship between the rhythmic musical culture of Salvador and African
music may explain these student’s reactions. Students, mainly from the
public school, displayed rhythmic abilities playing Brazilian rhythms
and improvisations using the available percussion instruments or their
own chairs and bodies. Some of the girls from the private school showed
some high melodic improvisational abilities.

Conclusion
During the three years of work it became evident that the educational
context between the state school and private schools in both cities was
very different. Although we did not carry out a systematic survey of the
conditions of students outside and inside the schools, music teachers
established informal contacts with students and classroom teachers in
order to obtain further information regarding children’s living conditions
and the dynamic of the schools. The economic, social and educational
variables may be considered some possible causes for the difference of
achievements between students of the schools. Among them first comes
the age gap of students between the schools. The students of the private
schools had an age gap of around two years among themselves, while in
the state school the age gap reached five and sometimes six years. Many
of these students were repeating the same grade for the second or third
year consecutively. Although there was that age gap, musically speaking
the developmental difference was more due to new students that joined
in not having had formal music education, rather than to their actual
age. The only exception was students from the public school in Salvador
who tended to display more complex rhythmic abilities, through playing
and dancing. These findings confirm the assumption that a systematic
engagement with music, inside or outside the school environment, is a
determinant factor of progression.
The second provable factor of influence on the different rate of develop-
ment between students of the private and state schools is the poor living
conditions. At the state school it was reported that some students had
serious family problems, such as alcoholic parents, temporary or perma-
nent absence of one of the parents and emotional instability. They are

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children that most of the time do not have adequate living conditions:
they have improper housing, insufficient meals and emotional instability.
A third factor relates to the physical conditions and resources that the
schools offer in order to carry out music lessons. The private schools
had better resources than the state ones, not only in terms of classroom
facilities but also in terms of musical instruments and electronic
equipment.
A fourth factor has to do with the sporadic contact of the music teacher
with the students, which is quite different from the classroom teachers that
are there every day. The affective relationship takes longer to be established,
as well as the fact that some students perceive music lessons as a leisure

time, not taking it as important a subject as the other ones. Talking to

teachers, parents and administrators in an informal basis, it was possible
to see that this prejudice is passed on to the children. Some of them stood
up sometimes and said to the teacher, ’my dad asked me why we are losing
time with music classes. We should stay in a our science class’. There
was also a difference between the pedagogical approach of the classroom
teacher and the approach of the music teacher. It was noticed that although
classroom teachers had a positive discourse towards respecting children’s
views, showing a more child-centred approach, in practice, they acted in
a very authoritarian way, allegedly because this kind of ’language’ was the

only one students would understand.

The issues mentioned above cannot be considered as the only causes to
explain students’ differences in musical development among the schools.
However, they played an important role as far as the curriculum proposal
is concerned. The isolation of some of those variables deserves one or more
research projects and goes beyond the scope of this work. Results can
confirm that it is less likely that the students’ musical development, fol-
lowed up over three years would have merely occurred by chance, due to
normal cognitive, affective and psychomotor development. Recent research
carried out by Swanwick, (1994), Hentschke, (1993a and 1993b), Del Ben,
(~ 99~), Hentschke, and Del Ben, (1998), Silva, (1998) and Swanwick and
Silva, (1999), showed that if the systematic engagement with music does
not occur, the musical development will stagnate. Thus, it is possible to
suggest that the musical development observed in all schools is mainly due
to the formal contact with music education, as shown by the consecutive
data collection, as well as the lesson reports and students’ profiles. We
have to bear in mind that it is difficult to affirm that variables such as
maturation, and outside school musical experiences have not played an
important part in some students’ musical development. However, a great
difference was noticed in the zuusical development between students that
took part in the initial sample and the ones who joined in at different points
during the three years.
The data collected during the three-year longitudinal study and by the
theoretical discussions and assessment research data previously men-
tioned point towards a confirmation of the hypothesis of the present
work, i.e., that the spiral theory and model of musical development can
be used as a theoretical framework to build a musical curriculum for
primary schools. This study offers some theoretical and practical contri-
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buttons for music education, since it is the first longitudinal study to
investigate the possibility of using the spiral theory and model of musical
development for this purpose. Previous research has focused on the use
of the spiral criteria to assess musical products of composing, performing
and listening. Because it was a longitudinal study, it was possible to
systematically follow up groups of students over three consecutive years,
revealing in this way individual and collective features of musical devel-
opment that cross-section research does not offer.
This study also offers contributions to curriculum development,
planning and assessment, especially to Brazilian schools and to other
countries that have such sharp differences between state and private
educational sectors. It raises the question of the adequacy of having one
curriculum model that can match such different realities, different ways
of experiencing music outside schools that will reflect the way children
relate to music, preference to one or more musical parameters, etc. The
specific role of the school and formal education in societies where
informal musical experience is substantial and varied needs attention in
the future (Swanwick, 1999).
Considering the recent Brazilian educational reforms, as well as the
production of curriculum guidelines (PCNs 1997), the Brazilian edu-
cational system needs studies of this kind that can serve as a support
for planning in such a diverse educational context. Another positive
aspect was that the proposal was tried out in two different states, with
two different cultural realities, and within each, in two different
educational settings (state and private funded education).
In summary, we need a high-standard teacher training programme as
well as adequate curriculum proposals in order to develop an effective
music education in primary and secondary school. Still many issues
remain to be investigated after this study and among them are the kinds
of relationships established by parents, administration with music
education within the school setting and the social, economical and
educational contexts in which teachers will operate.
The curriculum proposal values the knowledge and experience that
students bring with them, how they relate themselves with music, what
kind of experience people have outside the school which, in the Brazilian
case can be considered very rich and complex at the same time.

Subsequent research and publications that are being produced by some

Brazilian music education research teams are likely to present some
alternatives to working with music in different Brazilian educational
settings. It is not enough to say that, musically speaking, Brazil is a rich
country, It is important to have a fair educational system that allows
everyone at least some access to that richness.

Acknowledgements
This research project was sponsored by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de I7esenvolvimento
Cientifico e Tecnologico) and FAPERGS (Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Rio Grande
do Sul).
The research was carried out by: Professor Liane Hentschke, Teresa N. A. Mateiro, Elisa

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S. Cunha and Viviane Beineke (Porto Alegre) and Dr. Alda Oliveira, Zuraida Abud l3astiao,
Maria da GraQa Carneiro de Campos da Rocha, Denilse Gusmäo, Paulo Emilio Parente de
Barros e Ilma Nascimento (Salvador).

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DEveloppen1ent des programmes 9~~~~e~ et d9~~~~u~.~~®

a partir de la due
L’objectif de cet article est de d6crire 1’etude qui recherche l’utilisation possible de la th6orie
de Swanwick comme cadre th6orique pour d6velopper et 6valuer le programme d’enseigne-
rnent musical propose dans les écoles primaires. Le projet a ete construit a partir des resultats
actuels selon lesquels le mod6le et la th6orie de la spirale pourraient 6tre utilis6s pour
6valuer la creation musicale des enfants par la composition, 1’interpretation, et 1’6coute.
Cette etude propose quelques contributions pratiques et théoriques a 1’education musicale
notamment pour les écoles br6siliennes et les autres pays qui ont des differences si marquees
entre le secteur prive et public de 1’education. Cette etude s’interroge sur la pertinence d’un
mod6le exclusif de cursus qui r6pondrait a des r6alit6s diff6rentes, a des approches variees
de 1’experience musicale hors des écoles refl6tant la mani6re dont les enfants vivent la
musique en fonction d’un ou plusieurs parametres musicaux.

Musik-Curriculumentwickiung -evaluation auf der Grundiage

von Theorie
Dieser Beitrag beschreibt eine Studie iiber die Mbglichkeit, Swanwicks Theorie als theoreti-
schen Rahmen zur Entwicklung und Evaluation eines Musik-Curriculumentwurfs fur die
Grundschule zu benutzen. Das Projekt wurde entwickelt, weil es evident ist, daB die
Spiraltheorie und sein Modell dazu dienen k6nnen, die musikalischen Leistungen von
Kindern in der Komposition, beim Musikmachen und Musikhoren zu bewerten. Diese Studie
liefert einige theoretische und praktische Beitrdge fiir die Musikerziehung, vornehrnliclr in
Brasilien und solchen Landern, die eine ebensolch scharfe rrerrnung zwischen dem staatli-
chen und dem privaten Erziehungssektor kennen. Dabei stellt sich die Frage nach der
Angemessenheit nur eines Curriculum-Modells fiir so unterschiedliche aul3erschulische
Musikerfahrungen, die die Art, wie Kinder mit Musik umgehen, und ihre Vorliebe fur einen
oder mehrere musikalische Parameter spiegeln.

El desarrollo del curriculum de y la evaluation era la

teoria de Swanwick
Es prpoposito de este trabajo describir el estudio que investiga la posibilidad de utilizar la
teoria de Swanwick como marco teorico para desarrollar y evaluar la propuesta curricular
de mdsica para la escuela primaria. Este proyecto fue creado en base a las evidencias

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existentes de que la teoria y el modelo espiral pueden ser usados para evaluar las produccio-
nes musicales de los ninos a traves de la composici6n, la ejecucion y la audici6n. Este
estudio aporta algunas contribuciones para la educaci6n musical, especialmente para las
escuelas brasilenas y otros paises donde existe una muy marcada diferencia entre secotores
educativos publicos y privados. Esto plantea el interrogante sobre lo apropiado de tener un
modelo curricular que pueda atender realidades tan diferentes, diferentes maneras de experi-
mentar la musica fuera de las escuelas y que va a reflejar la manera en que los ninos
serelacionan con la musica, y sus preferencias por uno o mas pardmetros musicales.

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