Fourth Multiplier Event - 11/07/2015

MusiChild’s fourth multiplier event took place in Corfu organized by the Department of Music, Ionian University as part of the International Summer Music Academy.

Date: Saturday 11th of July 2015, 9.30 - 14.30
Location: Ionian Academy, Corfu
Participants: Forty (40) Kindergarten and Primary school teachers, music teachers, and other professionals from the public, private and communal sectors from different parts of Greece.

Brief description of the multiplier event:

1. Welcome from the host Dr. Zoe Dionyssiou (Ionian University), who briefly presented the activities and work that took place during the Training Course (6th-10th July), and the two music concerts/ events as parallel activities to the Training Course (7th and 10th July). She also presented the key ideas of the project, and possibilities about its future implementation in 
the four participating countries of the Mediterranean (Cyprus, Spain, Greece and Italy) and elsewhere.

2. Welcome from Prof. Miranda Caldi, on behalf of the Department of Music, who talked about the importance of the good quality research in early childhood music education. She also talked about the long tradition of the Department on music educational projects in schools and the community in the fields of music education and music psychology. 

3. Welcome from the co-ordinator of the project, Dr. Avra Pieridou Skoutella, who talked about the importance of the project as it connects cultures from four Mediterranean countries that share a long history.

4. Welcome from Mr. Perikles Papadopoulos, School Advisor for the Prefecture of Ionian Islands, who praised the good work of the Department of Music in its community music activities and educational projects. 

5. Presentation: “Research and Scientific Backgroud of the MusiChild Project: Music in Early Childhood Music Education - Interculturality - Musicality - Evaluation”.
Avra Pieridou-Skoutella presented the main phases of the project, and justified our emphasis on early childhood education while elaborated on the music evaluation tool of the Partnership.
Zoe Dionyssiou presented the main findings from literature review on good practices in the teaching of traditional music in education and especially in early childhood education, and refered to the  MusiChild musicality protocol. Paola Anselmi presented some key concepts from working with children aged 3 to 7 years old, as well as practical advice on how to observe children in their playtime for teachers and parents. Amaya Epelde Larranaga presented some key terms and process on creativity theory and its application in music education. Ioanna Etmektsoglou presented some main ideas on how to teach music in special education, the need to strengthen the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream education, and the benefit of listening to our inner self. We also refered to the importance of promoting an intercultural music education approach with young children. 

6. Workshop: “Songs, Dances and Games from the Mediterranean: Intercultural Approach in Early Childhood Music Education”.
The partners of the project led this workshop with songs, playsongs, games, and dances from Mediterranean cultures. We presented playsongs from the following categories: rhymes, counting games, body-parts games, circle games, dialoge games, free space games. Among the playsongs we sung were: Kariotes, Skoupa, O ploumistos, La bella lavanterina, Triantafyllia mou trikardi, Il mio cappello a tre punte, Mi barba, Corre en Trencito, Sol Mario, Il sardina, Perna perna i melissa, etc. Among the dances we danced were I trata mas i kourelou, Hava Nagila, and the International Song that was composed by the participants of the Training Course. Many of those songs and games are under preperation for being included in the Musichild Manual and CD. The activities were presented in an 'intercultural' way, creating links among cultures through musical and other elements. 

7. Discussion and closing of the seminar. In the last section of the day conference, questions and reflections were raised by the participants. Most participants expressed positive comments about the project, offered their reflections about the importance of promoting traditional playsongs, songs, dances and games in educational settings. They expressed their interest on the material presented, and stressed the importance on intercultural approach in early childhood music education within the Mediterranean region.

Third Multiplier Event - 23/05/2015

MusiChild’s third multiplier event took place in Rome organized by Scuola Popolare di Musica Donna Olympia.

Date: Saturday 23 of May 2015, 9.30 – 13.30
Location: Teatro Scuderie Villino Corsini, Villa Pamhjili, Rome (Italy)
Participants: Forty - nine (49) Kindergarten and Primary school teachers from the public, private and communal sectors from different parts of Italy.  

 Brief description of the multiplier event:

 1. Paola Anselmi (Scuola Popolare di Donna Olimpia - partner hosting the third MusiChild workshop) presents the main topics of the project, focusing on the development that the project is having on new ideas that are emerging from the meetings of the team from the four countries of the Mediterranean (Cyprus, Spain, Greece and Italy), especially regarding the last Outputs (evaluation tools and multicultural and intercultural curriculum).

Briefly describes the philosophical aspects of the Project and the importance of intercultural music education for young children, emphasizing three steps necessary so that it can be made an intercultural education: a deep knowledge of their roots, the comparison between the different traditions (broadly global: history, religion, politics, philosophy, art, society) of our countries with attention to differences and similarities and seeking mergers, intersections, interchanges, integration between these experiences, strong of a common root that is the Mediterranean geographical area

2. Prf. Dr José Luis Arostegui presents to teachers new ideas that emerged from the data collected in the pilot study regarding the emergent evaluation tool of the partnership for an intercultural music education and Dr. Zoe Dionisiou speaks of MusiChild musicality protocol.

3. The representatives of Italy, Cyprus and Greece offer musical activities (games, songs and dances) extracted from the material in preparation for the Musichild Manual and CD. The activities are offered in an 'intercultural' way between different musical examples taken by the countries involved, for example by mixing in one teaching activity: a melody presented by the Coordinator of the project in Cyprus, an Italian game with hands and a popular melody common to Italy, Greece and Cyprus.

4. Presentation of other musical proposals by the three representatives of the team Musichild, with the intention of offering examples of methodological processes involving all the elements of a musical and social culture (singing, movement, rhythm, narrative, stories of tradition, core activities etc.). The attention is focused on how informal and traditional early childhood music learning/teaching practices contribute to formal practices cross-culturally.

5. Presentation of some traditional games with the aim of sharing the need to 'modernize' some traditional content closer to the children who are now living in our cultures - new vision of a tradition 'modern' or updated, common needs of the Mediterranean.

6. Conclusions and discussion - questions and reflections by the audience on the importance of such projects in the current educational landscape; The teachers have shown great interest and participation, required depth and stressed the importance of a new vision of music education according to a multi-cultural interpretation within the Mediterranean region.

7. After a Neapolitan tarantella, the workshop ends with the traditional Cypriot dance sousta, used to close the event in an enjoyable and satisfying way.

First Multiplier Event - 01/11/2014

The First Multiplier Event took place at Arte Music Academy in Nicosia, Cyprus on Saturday 1st
November 2014, 8.30 – 13.30.

Kindergarten teachers from the public, private and communal sector of the Republic of Cyprus
More than one hundred kindergarten teachers from different parts of Cyprus, the public and
private sector participated in the event.

The event included:

1. Presentation by Avra Pieridou Skoutella of C.C.R.S.M. regarding the main points of the
cross-comparative research that was taking place during that period. There was reference
on the formal situation in our countries of early childhood music education policies,
practices, teacher training and material. Cross –cultural similarities and differences were
presented as well as those findings that enhance cross-cultural understanding of the
complexity of different religious, cultural, ethnic, ideological and educational matters in
ECME in the Mediterranean basin.

2. Combined presentations from Italy, Spain, Greece and Cyprus in order to demonstrate via
practical examples of traditional songs and music education methodologies as well as
analysis of this material (a) the cross-cultural commonalities and differences of music
education practices, content and methodology, (b) how modernity effects negotiate with
tradition in developing sound recordings and visual representations of tradition suitable
for young children and (c) how multiculturalism and interculturalism in the
Mediterranean are expressed in informal and traditional musical practices, songs and
dances. Such activities also aimed towards increasing awareness of child musical
learning from different cultural, religious, national, ethnic, educational contexts through
embodied relevant musical activities.

The event concluded with clarifications of any questions from the audience and explanation of
how MUSICHILD will develop. The event received extremely positive feedback by the
participants who were extremely enthusiastic.

Second Multiplier Event - 04/02/2015

It took place at Granada Higher Conservatory, Spain from Wednesday, 4th February 2015 to
Thursday, 5th 2015. There was a diversity of precedence of participants, more than 50
participants. Most of them were students enrolled at the specialization of Musical Pedagogy, but
also teachers from Conservatory and Schools of Music.

The multiplier event was embedded in the 3rd International Symposium of Music Education
organised by the Granada Higher Conservatory and the University of Granada, Music Education
Department, this time dedicated to early childhood music education.

MusiChild team had three presentations:

During the first presentation:

1. Avra Pieridou Skoutella of C.C.R.S.M. introduces several concepts about how children
from 0 to 7 years old learn. She discussed some major theories on human agency, musical
identities, flow and micro-pedagogy.

2. Paola Anselmi, from the Donna Olympia Popular School of Rome, discussed the Gordon
theory of musical learning and Bolton contribution and the Orff method in ECME. She
also introduced the “Musica in Culla” project for early childhood.

3. A discussion was carried out with the participants.

During the second presentation:

1. José Luis Aróstegui, from Granada University, discussed different approaches to
evaluation and its implementation to music early childhood. He also introduced a first
draft of the MusiChild evaluation tool.

2. Zoe Dionyssou, from the Ionian University, reflected on the concepts of musicality,
authenticity, bi and multi musicality and its application to Early Childhood Music
Education (ECME) to evaluate the instructional process.

3. A discussion with participants was followed.

During the third presentation:

Avra Pieridou, Paola Anselmi and Zoe Dionyssou offered a practical workshop doing activities
with participants (singing, dancing, moving, playing…) illustrating our proposal of intervention
in ECME from an intercultural perspective. We decided to include this workshop in order to
share a practical experience with participants, since outputs 2 and 3 are by and large theoretical.

This workshop was somewhat similar to that one offered in Nicosia during the first multiplier
event. A 30-minute discussion with participants was followed after one-hour workshop.