Ayako Ono and Noriko Haji
In this paper, the author first examines the Courses of Study for Japanese kindergarten, nursery and elementary school education to highlight key educational objectives for early childhood education. Among these is the goal of developing childrens capacity for self-expression. The paper then introduces the use of traditional Japanese musical instruments to develop self-expression in early childhood. Using (traditional Japanese drums) as an example, the effectiveness and problems of playing musical instruments are discussed, particularly with reference to the challenge of transitioning smoothly from music as a form of play and self-expression at kindergartens and nursery schools to music as a subject in early elementary school grades. How this transition might be achieved will be examined in a future paper.
Keywords : Music, Child, Wadaiko, Elementary school
Introduction
On December 21st, 2016, the Central Education Council published a report entitled About improving the Courses of Study for kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and special support schools, and required measures . In the re-port, the importance of early childhood education is highlighted by the statement that :
…in one s span of life, early childhood is an
ex-tremely important time when the bases of personali-ty, changeless throughout life, are formed. Through direct and tangible experiences such as daily life and play, infant children develop emotionally and intel-lectually and become socialized to obtain the bases to live a better life as a human being and a member
of society.
Based on the five areas of the current Courses of Study for kindergartens (MEXT, 2017a) ( health , relationship , environment , language , and expres-sion ), the report mentions that desirable personal features obtained by the end of early childhood in-clude :
1) the bases of knowledge and technical skills relating to what they can feel, become aware of, understand, and allow themselves to do through rich experiences in play and daily life ,
2) the bases of thought, judgment, and expressiveness relating to how they should think, try, be creative, and express themselves using what they have become aware of and what they have become able to do in play and daily life , and
3) the bases of learning and humanity relating to how to live a better life while feeling, motivation, and at-titude are being developed . These are qualities and abilities that should be nurtured integrally by
compre
-Elementary School Music Department Method of Education (2):
Consideration of the Potential of Wadaiko
Copyright© 2018 by Chugokugakuen
http://www.cjc.ac.jp/
Corresponding author : Ayako Ono
Department of Children Studies, Faculty of Children Studies, Chugokugakuen University, Niwase 83, Kitaku, Okayama, 701-0197, Japan
Tel & Fax : + 81 86 293 1100 E-mail: onoa7120@cjc.ac.jp
hensive guidance through play.
It further suggests that innovations and improve-ments should be implemented so that the learning outcomes of early childhood education are shared with elementary schools.
Courses of Study for kindergartens and
childcare guidelines for nurseries
Our nations early childhood education and child-care are performed at kindergartens and Centers for Early Childhood Education and Care under the juris-diction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and also at nurseries under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Childcare is carried out at kindergartens and nurseries based on Courses of Study for kinder-gartens (MEXT, 2017a) and childcare guidelines for nurseries (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2017), respectively. The growth and development of each child are encouraged and the ability to live is nurtured.
To achieve these outcomes, the current Courses of Study for kindergartens and childcare guidelines for nurseries suggest health , environment , relation-ship , and language with respect to infant childrens development, and expression regarding sensibility and expression, as areas for educational goal-setting.
For the area of expression , it is described in the Courses of Study for kindergartens (MEXT, 2017a) that sensibility and expressiveness should be devel-oped to foster rich creativity through expressing in his or her own way what he or she feels or thinks. Exactly the same concept is stated in the childcare guidelines for nurseries (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2017).
The learning goals in the Courses of Study for kin-dergartens and the childcare guidelines for nurseries are also the same for the area of expression :
1) to be sensitive to such as the beauty of various things,
2) to enjoy expressing in his or her way what he or she feels or thinks, and
3) to develop his or her imagination in daily life and enjoy various forms of expression.
The contents of the Courses of Study for kinder-gartens aim for children to :
1) enjoy becoming aware of, or feeling, a variety of sounds, colors, shapes, textures, movements, . in daily life,
2) develop their imagination by experiencing beautiful things and heart-touching events in daily life,
3) appreciate the fun of exchanging ideas about what he or she was impressed by at various events,
4) express with sounds or movements, freely write or create what they feel or think,
5) become familiar with various materials and to play with the materials creatively,
6) become familiar with music and to appreciate the fun of singing songs and playing simple rhythm instru-ments,
7) enjoy drawing or making things and to use them for their play or decorating rooms,
8) appreciate the fun of expressing their own imagina-tion or role-playing with movements or words.
Very similarly, the contents of the childcare guide-lines for nurseries aim for children to :
1) enjoy touching various materials such as water, sand, soil, paper, and clay,
2) play by singing songs, with hands, and by moving bodies with rhythm together with nursery teachers, 3) become aware of, or enjoy, a variety of sounds, colors, shapes, textures, movements, tastes and flavors in daily life,
4) develop his or her imagination by experiencing var-ious events in daily life,
5) appreciate the fun of exchanging ideas about what he or she was impressed by at various events,
6) express with sounds or movements, freely write, or create what they feel or think,
7) become familiar with various materials and tools and to play with them creatively,
8) become familiar with music and appreciate the fun of singing songs and playing simple rhythm instru-ments,
9) enjoy writing or making things and to play or deco-rate rooms with them,
10) appreciate the fun of expressing their own imagi-nation and role-playing with movements or words.
Given that the contents of these two sets of learn-ing goals for expression are very similar, it is under-standable that the goals for activity contents are the same.
At elementary schools, expression is developed particularly through subject areas such as music and physical education and thus is positioned as an ordi-nary part of daily life, based on the method of child-care at each kindergarten or nursery and how children live their lives there at the time. So care should be taken to ensure that expression is not treated as a separate, distinct activity, but part of daily life. Among the points to consider in the Courses of Study for kindergartens (MEXT, 2017a), the following de-scriptions are written :
1) Great sensibility should be nurtured through en-countering beautiful things, great things, impressive events, . during rich contacts with the surround-ing environment such as nature, sharsurround-ing their deep impressions of them with other children and teach-ers, and expressing them in various ways.
2) Infant childrens self-expression tends to be per-formed in simple ways and so teachers should accept such expressions, trying to understand them, and to enable the children to enjoy using various childish expressions in daily life.
3) In order to allow infant children to enjoy various expressions by themselves and to fully exert their motivation to express themselves in accordance with living experiences and development, teachers should prepare play equipment and tools, giving consider-ation to their circumstances so that the children can be exposed to other infant childrens expressions, and do everything possible to allow the children to cherish the process of expression and to enjoy their self-expression.
Again similarly, in the points to consider in the childcare guidelines for nurseries (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2017), it is stated that teachers should give consideration to various resources such as the materials and tools needed for childcare in order to allow infant children to freely express what they feel, think, or imagine with their creativity in various ways.
All of this shows that the kindergarten Courses of Study and childcare guidelines for nurseries see the area of expression as emphasizing the development of sensibility and motivation to express what the chil-dren feel, think or imagine. Furthermore, both seek to develop a rich creativity during childrens experiences and to provide activities where all categories includ-ing music, shape formation, and bodily expression are integrated. Both recognize individual expression as relevant to childrens growth and development. That is to say that regarding the feeling, motivation, and atti-tude of each childs expression, it is gradually getting close to fulfillment while infant children accumulate various experiences, becoming familiar with each oth-er through their lives at kindoth-ergarten or nursoth-ery.
Kindergartens and nurseries where children
are living their lives
Adults engage with society and express themselves as members of that society. On the other hand, it is kindergartens or nurseries where each child can ex-press him or herself as members of a group. There, they cry, laugh, and quarrel to inspire one another and to grow together, as a result of which their personali-ties gradually develop.
All activities, such as becoming aware of sounds, colors, shapes, textures, movements, tastes, flavors, ., exchanging what he or she was impressed by, sing-ing songs, drawsing-ing, maksing-ing thsing-ings, and role-playsing-ing are of interest to children and there they can encounter something fresh and new to them.
Future early childhood education
As mentioned earlier, the Central Education Coun-cil has explicitly stated the importance of early child-hood education in their report (2016).
In addition to the three sets of personal features stated above to be obtained by the end of early child-hood, the report also states that the following concrete personal features should be nurtured in infant chil-dren by the age of five :
1) have a healthy body and mind, 2) have a sense of independence, 3) have a sense of cooperativeness,
5) be involved with social life, 6) have a rudimentary ability to think,
7) have contact with nature and a respect for life, 8) have interest in and sense for numbers, figures, and letters,
9) be willing and able to communicate using lan-guage,
10) develop sensibility and a capacity to express themselves, and
11) be required to be creative or to improve so that the learning outcomes of early childhood education can be shared with elementary schools.
Problems with the current Courses of Study
The current Courses of Study have focused on and directed improvement in areas such as develop-ing infant childrens abilities to appreciate and enjoy music, express their thoughts or intention, enjoy lis-tening to music, nurture attitudes to become involved with music and life, and become familiar with music culture throughout life in whatever ways interest the individual. On the other hand, further development is required in terms of applying sensibility to create musical expression in cooperation with others, think about the goodness and values of music by listening to it, further appreciate the goodness of our national and local traditional music by becoming familiar with them, and deepen their interest in, and understanding of sounds, musics functions, and music culture in life and society.
The significance of learning a subject can be seen in relation to three pillars, qualities or abilities ac-quired through the subject s content and activities. The core of these is the way of viewing or thinking , which is rooted in the essence of each subject. In the report of the working group for the Courses of Study for art, published in May 2016 (MEXT, 2016), it was discussed that this relates to the viewpoint unique to a specific subject, capturing various events and the framework for thought unique to a specific subject. In artistically oriented subjects such as music, these relate to various objects and events that interact with each other and are developed integrally. In addition, children become able to apply various ways of view-ing or thinkview-ing , nurtured in accordance with the na-ture of each subject in integrated ways. This enables them to regard or think about society and the world
from various viewpoints.
The working group conceptualized the way of viewing or thinking nurtured in accordance with the nature of artistically oriented subjects as follows. By acquiring and developing knowledge and technical skills that apply the way of viewing or thinking , the abilities of thought, judgment, and expressiveness are deepened and become richer. At the same time, how children become involved with society and the world through the way of viewing or thinking significantly affects the development of their capacity for learning and humanity.
Furthermore, in elementary school level music studies, students are required to apply their sensi-bility to music, to understand sounds and music with respect to music-forming elements and their functions, and to associate them with their own imagination, feel-ings, life, or culture.
Connecting early childhood education and
elementary school education
In the education of early elementary school grades (aged 6-8), there is a growing recognition of the importance of children making a smooth transition from the comprehensive guidance focusing on indepen-dent-minded play appropriate to early childhood, to the learning appropriate to early elementary school grades. That is to say that there is a growing under-standing of the need to develop a seamless educa-tional process through cooperation between staff at kindergartens and nurseries, and those at elementary schools. To this end, it has also become important for kindergarten/nursery teachers and elementary school teachers to share their understanding of children and their respective educational objectives. However, it has been a challenge to smoothly connect the compre-hensive guidance through play experienced at kinder-gartens and nurseries, with the learning objectives of elementary schools for the purpose of developing personal features by the end of early childhood.
Possibilities of
(Japanese drum)
the Japanese drum, is a traditional Japa-nese instrument, but its history as a music culture is relatively short. From the fact that clay figures
con-sidered to be made in the period (250-538 AD) feature objects that look like a drum, it is considered that drums have existed for a long time. They were used in Shinto rituals such as (Expulsion of insects) and (Rain-making), as well as for signaling or unnerving an enemy during battle. Such rain-making rituals and harvest celebrations developed into festivals that use drums and which remain part of modern Japanese culture, for example the
festival. Furthermore, has also developed into something of a competitive event.
In addition, Japanese people in ancient times regarded trees as sacred and used them to make cowhide-covered drum bodies and drumsticks. Indeed there are many places in Japan where the spirit of taking the best possible care of is still deep-rooted. However, it was only after World War II that people began to use for music and art, so while there are various striking methods and melodies, there is no established methodology for teaching it.
Since April 2002, (Japanese instruments) have been introduced to music studies in compulsory elementary and junior high school education and the number of cases of being introduced into nurs-eries and kindergartens has also gradually increased. While the (Japanese lute), (Japanese harp) and would all be possible choices of instrument at this level, many schools have opted for because the playing style is simple and each child can work on it in accordance with their own at-tainment target.
The following might be considered potentially ben-eficial effects for children playing the : 1) Etiquette : , which is a form of traditional Japanese culture, begins and ends with bowing, so children can learn etiquette such as how to greet other people and how to be deferential to their seniors. 2) Health : Playing the needs large body movements, so it is effective in developing core body muscles and helpful for healthy bodybuilding. In ad-dition, a good posture can be acquired by playing the wadaiko and it is also a good form of cardio-vascular exercise because one needs to strike the drum strongly.
3) Cooperativeness : is generally played in a group, so cooperativeness can be developed by work-ing in harmony with other members drumbeats. Chil-dren can attain the ability to think about how to play better as part of a whole group rather than standing out as an individual. They can also think about how to help other group members who are having difficulties. 4) Responsibility : It can also be expected that work-ing as part of a group would develop childrens sense of responsibility through a desire not to let the group down.
5) A sense of advancement and expressiveness : Children can attain a sense of advancement by finding answers to their own questions, for example how to strike the drum in a way that looks good, how to make music or how to make himself or herself aesthetically attractive. Problem-solving ability can also be expect-ed to develop through the process of deciding and doing ones own tasks.
6) Perseverance : Perseverance is attained through repeated practice.
7) Understanding of traditional culture : Expe-riencing wadaiko enables children to deepen their knowledge and understanding of traditional Japanese culture.
It is said that children aged 4-6 in kindergarten and nurseries, and students aged 6-8 in early elemen-tary school grades have a lot in common with respect to the development of their bodies and minds, for ex-ample in the things that they show interest in and their basic athletic abilities. Given this apparent similarity, it is problematic that a big difference is currently observed between kindergartens and nurseries on the one hand and early elementary school grades on the other with respect to educational structures, contents and approaches to guidance.
If one accepts the importance to children s edu-cation and development of good preschool training, continued development of their bodies and minds, and the characteristic features of development during early childhood, then the consistency and continuity of
educational contents and guidance between kindergar-tens, nurseries and elementary schools needs further improvement. Therefore, consideration needs to be given to establishing methods that will help children to transition smoothly and easily from one to the other.
In summary
Children can enhance their desire to express what they feel or think by doing so vividly in their own ways and by having those expressions accepted and admired by others. Through music, further self-application by sharing the same rhythms and sounds with others in a musical group leads to childrens mental and physical development.
The Courses of Study for elementary schools in-cludes the goal of deepening childrens understanding of our nations culture and our traditional national and local music to enhance education concerning tradition and culture (MEXT, 2017b). This is an element added in anticipation of further globalization in the near future. (a classical style of drama through dance), music, (Japanese court music), ., now appear in textbooks as educational materials, and teachers teach about these through a series of stories. At a time when our nation has be-come a more global, open society, value is being placed on reconsidering our own nations culture.
A revision in the new Courses of Study reported in March 2017 (MEXT, 2017b) requires …[a]ctivities to improve classes based on accumulated educational practices. For the area of expressiveness in educa-tion in the age of globalizaeduca-tion, developing the ability to precisely and effectively express one s thoughts, intentions, and feelings is the most important educa-tional goal. In addition, developing a range of social
expression styles to become more involved with others is also needed. These include conversation, discussion, negotiation, writing, design, aesthetic sen-sibility, courtesy, manners, and consideration of public matters.
Using as an example, this paper discussed how the effectiveness and problems of playing instru-ments were considered as a solution to the challenge of transitioning from music as a form of expression to music as a subject of study. The consideration regard-ing the continuity from the expression described in the Courses of Study for kindergartens to music as a subject will be further examined in future papers.
References
Central Education Council. (2016). 幼稚園、小学校、中学校、高等
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MEXT. (2017b). 小学校学習指導要領 [Courses of Study for Elementary Schools]. Tokyo: Touyoukan Shuppansha. (In Japanese).
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. (2017). 保育所保育指針 [Child-care guidelines for nurseries]. Retrieved from
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