The arts

‘Successful learning is built on people recognising your abilities and strengths and helping you to build on them.’ We speak to Sue Lowry, winner of the Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award, about how she is delivering quality music education to students with special needs, and how they’re smashing expectations.

The new Fading Notes report explores the provision of music education in Australian primary teaching degrees. Researchers surveyed lecturers responsible for music education within Initial Teacher Education degrees, representing a student pool of more than 4,600 primary teaching students across 73% of universities delivering generalist primary teaching degrees. Topics included music training hours, and knowledge, skills and competency to teach. Here are some of the results.

Late last year, Matt Orchard from Apollo Bay P-12 College in regional Victoria was named winner of the 2022 Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award. In this article, he tells us about the music program he’s run for over 20 years.

What do you do with copies of old textbooks, battered novels and random pages? While recycling for the benefit of the environment is always a go-to option, Dr Jason DeHart offers some creative ideas for what you can do with old book copies and other ephemera that are lying in classrooms and back rooms.

Music education has a range of benefits, not only for students’ music learning, but for improving their capacity as a learner more broadly. In this article, we outline 5 further readings which explore Music education – from funding to frameworks, the benefits for teachers and students, and how the pandemic has affected Music education over the past 3 years.

The 2022 nominees for the Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award have just been announced. In this article, we share the impact the 4 teachers from New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria are having on their school community.

School strategic priorities such as improving literacy and numeracy outcomes involve all staff. In this reader submission, art teacher Kerry Kaskamanidis shares how she responded to a whole-school focus on literacy by building a partnership with a local art museum.

What is involved in moving museum content online for educational purposes? What are the benefits? What are the challenges? In this Q&A, we speak with Melina Mallos, former Education Manager at the Museum of Chinese Australian History, about the process of digitising museum content.

‘Long gone is the traditional view of a museum as being static and dusty. Contemporary museums promote interactive exhibits, experiential learning experiences and technological “open” accessibility.’ Dr Deb Cohen explains how teachers can use museum education programs to support classroom learning.

Teachers from Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales have been recognised as nominees for the 2021 Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award for their contributions to music education by fostering students’ self-esteem; keeping them engaged and inspired during periods of remote learning; and providing performance opportunities.