ABSTRACT

Creativity is a cornerstone of education in the 21st century. This ability asks students to break their inner walls toward the instructors, even though it is not an easy job for many Korean students. Educators, including Perkins and Molnar, emphasize that creativity is related to divergent thinking, not to convergent one which means to parrot the right answers . Even though divergent thinking seems to be overwhelming for the novice students, but as weeks go by they begin to be familiar with it, trusting their own instincts and creative abilities. This paper intended to summarize the class experiences conducted in Graduate School, Seoul National University and Graduate School, Inchon National University between 2000 and 2001. The strategies for these classes were developed by the writer based on Pogonowski`s idea. As expected, the first days of the classes were full of difficulties, but as the students felt free from their inner walls, the writer felt much fun for these classes, especially in watching students` development in their creative abilities. The strategies developed in this paper have the following characteristics: First, they employed the concept of Comprehensive Musicianship, in which students took the roles of performers, listeners, and creators. Here the creators` role was especially stressed while others were not ignored. Second, the strategies tried to enlarge the spectrum of school music repertory, including middle age, the 20th century, and the non-Western music. Third, the strategies tried to encourage students creative efforts as freely as possible encompassing the Cagian thought. In today`s music classrooms many students are bored with music because they are afraid of making mistakes and of not giving their teachers satisfaction. The exercises dealt in the class are not relevant with their individual needs and interests. Even though the notion that You don`t need to give your teacher satisfaction is unfamiliar with Korean students, this kind of classes make students learn the concrete musical features of various genre perceptively and cognitively. Also this class offers the opportunities for students to be engaged in music in active and systematic ways.