UNIVERSITY OF CALOOCAN CITY

Graduate School
Caloocan

ENHANCING MUSIC TEACHERS’

COMPETENCIES IN PRIMARY LEVEL :
BASIS FOR PROPOSED
INTENSIVE TRAINING PROGRAM
 INTRODUCTION
Music is one of the fundamental attributes of human life. At every stage of one’s
existence, music plays an essential part, from infancy to maturity as an adult. It is so
important because of its intrinsic value and benefits to other aspects of human competence
(Michingura &Zinhuku 2019).As observed by Okongo (2019) music has a tremendous
contribution to child development. The listening skills developed in music lessons are great
benefit to children throughout the whole curriculum and the creativity and problem-solving
skills children develop as they make their own musical compositions are vital to creating a
well-rounded child able to perform confidently in the twenty-first century.
In K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum Framework of Music and Arts Education, the design of curricula
is described as student-centered, based on spiral progression of process , concepts and skills and grounded in
performance -based learning (DepEd 2013). It is therefore ideal that music should be taught by competent
music educators so that pupils would be engaged in learning music through active involvement and
participation.
 INTRODUCTION
However , in most primary schools, children are usually taught by “generalist” teachers who are expected
to teach all curricular subjects, including music. As a subject, Music may appeal to be one of the most
challenging subjects to teach by a generalist teacher who does not have an expertise or any background in
music.
Many newly hired teachers begin their primary school teaching career with little knowledge and
understanding of music pedagogy (Stunell, 2010). Furthermore, some generalist primary teachers have
demonstrated negative attitudes towards music as a curriculum subjects (Spurce,Dauberry&Lamonth,2012) and
they may not understand the different ways that music education can be approached within the primary school (
Fautley & Henley 2010). In many western countries, music specialist teachers have been trained, resourced and
funded to implement developmental and sequential music programs in elementary schools. As music and arts
have decreased in priority in recent years, so numbers of specialist teachers have decreased and generalist
classroom teachers in many schools are expected to teach all the arts subjects, including music. Research
studies revealed, that non-specialist elementary teachers in these countries have little confidence in their own
musical ability and in their capability to teach music (Bowie,2010).
 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Many educators think that in order to engage the musical intelligence , all they have to do is to teach
the students a short song or a chant about a topic and it will help the students learn. This unfortunately has the
potential to hinder the students’ learning rather than promote it, as the musical intelligence is barely being
engaged at all. This is a significant problem in education today , as almost all educators are guilty of having
done this on least one occasion within their classroom. If primary teacher is determined to incorporate music
into general education classroom and engage the students’ musical intelligences , then it is important for those
teachers to research , learn and understand the correct and appropriate ways of doing so in order to promote
students’ learning and genuine understanding. According to Hoi Bonnie and Ebbeck (2011), primary teachers
are expected to integrate music into the curriculum in order to enhance the holistic development of the students.
There are many teachers trying to teach their students in a multiple intelligence-oriented classroom and other
who would like to start doing so.
 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
What has driven the researcher to conduct further study on this topic is her own
personal experience in education: as a learner, as an observer, and as an educator. As she
remembers , when was in grade school and she couldn’t understand the elements of music
because her teachers didn’t explain it well aside from that she just let sing a song without
explaining what elements of music is being applied. In other words, basic knowledge in
music in elementary days was not given ample importance. But in college, she was inspired
by her music teacher for being so well-equipped in teaching music, because aside from
singing ,she was able to play piano and read musical notes. From that time, she learned to
appreciate music that led her to handle music subject during internship. Her critique teacher reminded that as
music teacher is not enough just by singing. It is also necessary to play at least two musical instruments to
execute the lesson effectively. As an observer, heard from some primary teachers refused to teach music
because they were not interested in the subject aside from having a hard time in handling music subject for
lack of enough competencies.
 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Besides, mostly in elementary are teachers of General Education and lack of specialization
to teach the subject. As an educator, the researcher tried incorporating music into her own
lessons, with a less than complete understanding of how to get the students analyze and
absorb the necessary information.
The researcher is an educator by trade but a musician at heart and learned best through
music. This is the most important realization discovering Howard Gardner in his theory of
multiple intelligences. Understanding that there are different ‘Intelligences” within everyone
and knowing that she had musical intelligence sparked eventually her interest as a musician.
This triggered to understand more about combining the two passion in life : music and
teaching.
From this viewpoints this study aims to know the status of primary teachers in teaching
music in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes to come up with appropriate training program
to produce competent and effective music teachers. This would eventually inspire and enhance
the knowledge, skills and attitudes music teachers need to achieve thereby improving their
performance towards teaching the subject.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.What is the profile of the teacher-respondents in terms of:
• 1.1 Age;
• 1.2 Civil Status;
• 1.3 Educational Attainment;
• 1.4 No. of years in teaching music; and
• 1.5 Relevant Conferences/Seminars/training Attended?

2.What is the status of primary teachers in teaching music with regards

to:
• 2.1Musical Knowledge ;and
• 2.2Musical Skills
• 2.3 Attitudes
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
3.Is there a significant relationship in the assessment of
the respondents on the abovementioned variables?

4.What are the challenges encountered by the primary

•?
teachers in teaching music?
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

5. What intensive training program maybe proposed

based on the findings of the study?
 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION
Out of nine schools in Caloocan North 1 District, five schools were selected as
subject for the survey catering 80 teachers as respondents of the study.
This study limits its coverage to teachers in primary grades who are handling
MAPEH subjects in selected schools to identify their musical knowledge, musical skills
and attitudes in teaching music and the problems that they have encountered. It
considers every aspect of teachers’ personal information that has an impact on their
teaching performance such as educational qualification, number of years in teaching
music, seminars and training attended related to Music. Each of the respondents is
given same questionnaires to answer. Teachers in the intermediate levels are not
included in this study.
This research is also designed to come up with appropriate training program for
teachers in primary grades for them to become equipped in teaching music.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Public Schools District
Teacher Education
Supervisor
Institution

Schools Division Master Teacher

Superintendent/
Teachers Learners
Assistant Schools
Division Researcher
Superintendent
MAPEH Supervisor
Future Researcher
 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Teachers’ professional competencies and professional identities determine whether or not they
will recognize and encourage the development of children’s potential in music and their unique talent.
Sagud(2016) also emphasizes that teachers encourage children’s development by applying
appropriate teaching practices. Hence, teachers need to develop a variety of competencies in
different areas.
One set of competencies that every teacher should develop are musical competencies. Many
believed that implying that musical talent is an innate ability that some possess while other’s do not.
Blacking (2015) considers music as a universal property of humanity, whereas Hodges and Hack
(2016) pointed out that “all regardless of time and place, participated in musical behaviors”.
In Hong Kong teacher’s competence in delivering music instruction effectively in the classroom
has been an issue. An approximate 30% of both primary and secondary music teachers felt
incompetent in music creation and there is more or less 40 to 50 percent of teachers who are
interested to train in music composition and creation. Furthermore, Music teachers in Hong Kong are
focused on teaching musical theories that musical creation such as composing and performing (Ng
and Morris 2018).
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The Australian Senate Inquiry into the Arts Education (SERCARC 1995) reported that some
primary classroom teachers produce paucity of quality music education because of self-perception
that music shall be taught by only music teachers, inadequate training and lack of confidence and
experiences in teaching the said subject.
The result was also presented in Australia in terms of their confidence in teaching music and for
almost a thousand primary teachers identified six challenges in teaching music which includes limited
knowledge of curricula, time allocation for the subject is not enough, lack of resources and
inadequate personal experiences ( Russelle-Bowie and Julie Ballantyne , 2014)
United States of America strongly advocates arts of education which teachers might draw
theoretical concepts primarily in music. The program focuses on instrumental activities and music
vocal performance, however (Bresler, 2010) reported that teachers training in the arts are inadequate
and teachers still finds music as a difficult subject to teach-cited by Margaret& Liora Bresler.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
It is in Nambia where most people are nurtured with rich arts-culture and expected to be taught
by music teachers or specialist yet being dominated by generalist elementary classroom teachers
with limited experience. In terms of the effectiveness in providing good music education, it appears to
have resulted that teachers often dislike music(Russell-Bowie 2014).
South Africa is another country which is very much rich in arts-culture. African children of all
races are given the privilege to be entitled to tuition to Music Classes but appallingly classes are
often indicated on curricula timetables not in practice.(Russell-Bowie 2014)
Similarly, in the long history of Philippine Music Education, hours in teaching music was never
enough as the allotted time for the said subject is divided into three components. Dr. Lilian Luna, a
Music Specialist in the Secondary Education lamented the fact that it is difficult to give an advanced
lesson in music to first grader in Secondary level as students still need to take the foundation of music.
This is in spite of the Philippines Society of Music education (PSME) constantly pushing for an early
start in child’s training in music in order to nurture musical talent better.
Dr. Luna also added the declination percentage of Music specialist in the teaching field as it is
being transcended by generalist teachers in the primary level.(Thompson&Campbell 2015).
 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In 1966, DECS Memorandum #11 s.1963 was issued pointing out that Arts and Physical
Education in the elementary grades were often neglected for the sake of instructional and
administrative expediency. An observation further strengthens the memoranda (Bulletin #6 s.1959-
Improving the Teaching of Music) that “music for some years has not been seriously taught” ( D.O #1,
s.1957) and subsequently underlined that to teach music, it requires a special aptitude , not limited to
singing capability but also possesses knowledge of music reading and notation.
For this reasons, the Republic Act No. 4723 popularly known as Music Law, “An Act Giving
Importance to the Teaching of Music in the Curricula of Elementary and Secondary Schools, and
Appropriating Funds “was created which states that music shall be taught as a separate subject in
elementary and the teaching of music once a week for one hour in secondary level- cited by Prof.
Violeta E. Hornilla.
Music literacy requires both skills and knowledge. Skills allows a musician to perform with facility
while knowledge makes it possible to perform. Music teachers especially in primary level should have
this musical literacy to be able to teach music effectively.
 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Music knowledge is basically concerned with cognitive area of music. This includes the ability to
sing directly from the musical score (Solfeggio) and understanding of music score and the theoretical
knowledge which could help teacher from tonal harmonic accompaniment. Slosar(2010) stressed that
one of the important knowledge that teacher should know is reading musical score because it allows
teacher to perform an unknown piece of music accordingly with the requirements and proposals of the
author. Unfortunately, some research shows that teachers are very poor at reading musical score and
they are not performing new pieces which are regularly published in the relevant literature which
means that they do not put new ideas and concepts into lessons of music education. On the other
hand, musical skill pertains to the ability to perform music which includes singing, dancing and playing
simple instruments. Music teachers should be familiar with basic playing piano because it could help
in familiarization with other instruments with key. The ability to play piano allows teachers to learn
themselves with new songs. If teachers are unable to learn new song from musical piece then he/she
is unable to creatively lead the music education.
 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Teachers content knowledge is crucial in the teaching and learning process. Music teachers must
possess a comprehensive understanding of the skills and knowledge in what they teach. The skills
and knowledge are crucial for teachers to provide essential training in forms of theory as well as
practical aspects such as musical knowledge and performance skills using music instruments( Millican
2010) Holden and Button (2016) and Byo(2010) in their studies found that non-specialized music
teachers agreed that greater knowledge content has the potential to develop the teachers confidence
in teaching music by working with specialists of the area. They also assert that teachers are confident
in their pedagogical skills but weak in subject matter content and knowledge.
Darling-Hammond (2016) in Millican’s study mentioned that students’ knowledge, general
teaching skills and awareness of efficient learning are vital to an educators’ success. The knowledge
of music teacher should have included a range of skill, passion and understanding their role in
students’ live. The knowledge of performance skills strengthens the ability of becoming a successful
music teacher. Thus, it is important for teachers with lesser experience to improve their knowledge
through observation and trainings.
SYNTHESIS OF REVIEWED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
Upon reviewed the literature and studies collated, the researcher accepted the notion
that the study on “Enhancing Music Teachers’ Competencies in Primary Level focuses on
the musical knowledge, skills and attitude that teachers should possess to be able to
execute music lesson effectively. However, teachers’ competence in delivering music
instruction in the classroom has been an issue because most of the primary teachers felt
incompetent in music creation while others produce paucity of quality music education
because of the belief that music is a difficult and special subject and should be handled by
a specialist music teachers. Aside from that, inadequate training, lack of confidence and
experiences, limited time allotment are mentioned as issues that hindered the primary
teachers to become confident in teaching music.
Music Education requires a special aptitude that it is not limited in singing only but also
possesses knowledge of music reading and notation. Music knowledge is basically
concerned with cognitive area of music which includes the ability to sing directly from
musical score and understand it. Knowledge which could help teachers understand tonal
 harmonic accompaniment. Reading musical scores allow teachers to perform an
unknown piece of music. Unfortunately according to some research primary teachers are
poor at reading musical piece becauseof having a hard time in note reading especially
when key signature is changed.
On the other hand, musical skills pertain to the ability of teachers to perform music
which includes singing, dancing and playing instruments. If teachers are unable to perform
then he is also incapable to lead music education. In terms of attitude, most generalist
teachers felt uncomfortable and wanted to be relieved of the responsibility for teaching
music because of lack of knowledge, skills, training and experiences. But through this study
it will lead to find out the needed knowledge and skills to be enhanced so that appropriate
intensive training program will be given for the primary music teachers.
THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

(Odunuga, 2015)
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
• RESEARCH DESIGN
As defined by de Belen (2015) descriptive research is a method of research that seeks and
describes something out there such as status , condition or experience of a subject. Its focus is on the
estimation rather than testing or confirming a hypothesis because it basically aims to describe “ what
is”.
Calderon and Gonzales (2007) added that descriptive method is concerned with the conditions of
relationships that exist practices that prevail, belief, processes that are going on, effects that are being
felt or trends that are developing. The process of descriptive research goes beyond mere gathering and
tabulation of data. It involves that elements or interpretation of the meaning or significance of what is
interpreted. Thus description is often combined with comparison and contrast involving measurements,
classification, interpretation and evaluation.
The researcher deemed that descriptive method is the most appropriate method for this study
because it specifically describes the current knowledge and practices of music education instruction
that is vital for the creation of training program that may enhance the Music Education curriculum.
 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
• POPULATION AND SAMPLE
The teacher-respondents were 80 primary teachers from selected elementary schools
of Caloocan North 1 District. Twenty (20) teacher-respondents from three elementary
schools in CND 1 which are considered as large schools namely Camarin D Elementary
School, Camarin Main Elementary School and Caloocan North Elementary School while
Ten (10) teacher-respondents from small schools namely Camarin D Annex II Elementary
School and Horacio Dela Costa Elementary School will also be part of the teacher
respondents to equate the results.
The researcher adapted the purposive sampling technique where the samples are
selected based on the decision or judgment of the researcher on who are best qualified to
answer the objectives of the study. Hence, the researcher identified the prospective
people who were targeted to be involved in the study.
 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
• Research instrument
To gather the needed data, the following instruments were used
Data Analysis. The questionnaire result from teachers and the data gathered through
interview of the teachers were used to identify the challenges and difficulties of primary
teachers in teaching music.
Questionnaire. It is the primary source of data. It contains statement concerning the
problems stated in Chapter 1. The respondents ranked the statements based on the
perception/ knowledge regarding the subject.
Interview. This is the secondary source of data. The interview was conducted personally
by the researcher through the focus group discussion particularly teachers handling
MAPEH in primary level.
 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
• Data gathering procedure

Prior to the distribution of questionnaires, the researcher will ask permission from the
Schools Division Superintendent of Caloocan City for the administration of the instrument
to the study. Upon the approval of request, the letter will be forwarded to the school head
to make arrangement and approval regarding interviews and survey then researcher
would undergo the process to the different schools of Caloocan North 1 District.
• Statistical treatment of data
Percentage. This will be used for demographic details of primary teachers
Weighted Mean and Descriptive Ratings. This will be used to analyze the status of primary
teachers in teaching music in terms of knowledge , skill and attitude and the challenges encountered.
The listed scale will be used to measure the status of music teachers’ competencies and challenges
in teaching music in primary level.
Scale Level Descriptive Rating (SOP No.2)
4 3.26-4.00 Highly Competent (HC)
3 2.51-3.25 Competent
2 1.76- 2.50 Less Competent (LC)
1 1.00-1.75 Not Competent at all (NC)
Scale Level Descriptive Rating (SOP No.4)
4 3.26-4.00 Always Encountered (AO)
3 2.51-3.25 Oftentimes Encountered (OE)
2 1.76- 2.50 Sometimes Encountered (SE)
1 1.00-1.75 Not Encountered (NE)