Mapping Musical Learning: An Evaluation of Research in Music Education in Singapore

Overview & Synopsis

In the most recent Ministry of Education work plan seminar (Ministry of Education, 2010), a clear signal was sent out that arts education, primarily music and visual art, would become one of the key areas of focus in pursuing the goal of holistic education of a primary school child in the Singapore school system. This article, as part of a larger set of studies initiated by the UNESCO-NIE Centre for Arts Research in Education (Centre for Arts Research in Education, 2010) to map arts education research in Singapore, surveys research over the last three decades carried out in music education involving musical learnings from early childhood through tertiary education with a view to identify key areas of research interests and gaps. The content analysis serves also to assess and evaluate the matching of policy and practice in enabling a musical learner to make informed choices about that repertoire of musical possibilities the learner may carry into the later stages of his/her lived reality.