Making space for singing tools in the 21st century classroom

Abstract

I will present an overview of three ongoing research projects: “Singing, health and well-being in school – a societal matter” (SiS), “Eric Ericson – Musical Learning and Development”, “Choir Leader Practice – what and in what cultural environments”. By presenting my various roles, as Research Secretary at The Royal Swedish Academy of Music, Senior lecturer at Linnéaus University, and Chair for the Swedish Society for Music Research, I also want to discuss how and in what ways further research could be developed according to music research at KTH, and mediating tools for the 21st century classroom.

The research group Singing, health and well-being in school ­expect that the ongoing research project can contribute to greater awareness and understanding of the need for singing in school and promote the roll of singing in Swedish compulsory education. An ambition is to build a sustainable research platform for singing, health and well-being in school and serve for a wider national initiative in Sweden. Additionally, we see this project as a potential study contributing to measures and methods for optimizing noise levels to promote good classroom learning environments with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and the development of a classroom-based robot for this purpose. The research group (SiS) further hopes to contribute to the creation and support of inter-subject learning by promoting links between singing and music education and other school subjects such as language and natural sciences. Finally, this project is intended to serve as a platform for the creation of an evidence-based teaching model for singing education that can offer children in primary school equal access to good quality singing education, as well as improved learning environments that support their cognitive, language, emotional and social development.

The "Children singing – Let every child sing" project

Pia Bigdéus' home page at Linnaeus University