ABSTRACT

This study is carried out to suggest the desirable and developmental directions by finding out some problems in the contents of the music textbook of the elementary school in Korea, on the basis of the results of comparing the contents of our textbook with those of Japan and the United States of America. According to the purpose, the subjects of this search were established as follows: ① What are each country`s ways of writing, publishing and selecting the textbook in Korea, Japan, and the United States of America? ② What are their ways in which each of the three countries decides its curriculum, and what are the organizing style of the subjects, time allotments and music curriculums made up of? ③ How does each of the three countries select and construct the contents of the music textbook? For the search above, the current music textbook for the elementary students, which is book of the fifth amendment in Korea, was used, and at the same time the elementary textbook published by Education Publishing Co. in Japan and a book-`Music and You(Teacher`s Edition)` of Macmillan Publishing Co.-were used to be compared ours with the others. And so, some problems in our music textbook found through the search can be summarized as follows: First, when it comes to the whole construction of the textbook, the parts which are organized specially are limited to vocal activities and instrumental ones; while, the other parts, that is what are organized generally have lack of organic relations and systematization between materials. Secondly, the forms and the tonalities for singing materials are not various, and the chorus parts are arranged with difficulties in comparison with students` developmental stages. In addition, the contents for the growth of the ability to read music and the contents about the concepts of beat and meter are not sufficient. Thirdly, in the activities for playing the musical instruments, the guidance steps for students to play them are not systematic, and musical pieces as teaching materials demand a high level of playing skill. In the fourth place, the activities for composing are dull and vague because the concrete directions about composition activities are insufficient in the contents for learning to compose. And the substances about musical scores, rests and notes are used without being presented. Finally, students` learning to appreciate music is not effective. It is because not only their concerns are needed a lot for listening materials, but also appreciation activities are not closely connected with learning before-and-after the appreciation, and listening to music itself is apt to be an object. On the basis of the results of the search above, some directions are suggested here for the desirable development of our elementary music textbook. In the first place, the contents of the textbook should be constructed diversely, organically and systematically between substances after due consideration for students` interests and abilities, so that they may offer various kinds of musical experiences to students. Secondly, teaching materials for singing must be selected variously in their forms, tonalities, regions, and etc.; the chorus parts must be arranged under the consideration of students` developmental stages; the contents for the growth of music-reading abilities and the contents about the concepts of beat and meter must be suggested with various forms. Thirdly, some musical instruments that students can play easily should be chosen and presented a systematic execution to them. Besides, teaching materials itself for performance should be selected and arranged within the range which students have learned how to play the instruments. In the fourth place, the contents for learning composition must be presented both diversely and concretely under the consideration of students` abilities and interests. And musical scores, rests, and notes should be used after they are studied systematically by studen