Musical collections for primary education: a study with VIVES University College
Primary and secondary school teachers in Flanders can visit the Archief voor Onderwijs for high-quality images and audio to use in the classroom. We’re continuously improving this offering – a selection of content from our partners working in culture, media and the government. Currently on our agenda: musical education in primary schools. We’re looking at this issue as part of the Kunstig kijken (‘Looking artistic’) project together with four researchers from the Bachelor of Education degree course at VIVES University of Applied Sciences.
Uitdaging
We’ve welcomed lots of teachers to the Archief voor Onderwijs since this image database was launched. Internal research has shown, however, that primary school teachers and trainees could make much more use of this platform in the classroom. If we want to prepare children for the digital, social reality, then primary education needs to use appropriate digital audiovisual media for teaching activities and classes.
We have previously set up successful practical scientific research projects in the fields of ‘people and society’ and ‘science and technology’ with Artevelde University of Applied Sciences. This significantly boosted the image database’s use in primary education, so we're delighted to now be collaborating with VIVES University College for ‘musical education’ – an area of study that includes visual arts, drama, dance and music.
We notice that teachers are often left wanting in their search for good audiovisual content to enhance art appreciation in the classroom. That’s why we want to combine the expertise of our content partners’ collection managers in the museum and performing arts sector with that of educational experts – to provide a unique and high-quality offering to teachers in primary education.
Together with VIVES, we’re identifying teachers’ needs and the stumbling blocks they face when using audiovisual content in their lessons, and finding ways to offer them extra support. Our aim, together with our content partners, is to provide unique audiovisual content that has been customised for primary school teachers to enhance artistic appreciation in the field of musical education.
Our role
Meemoo is coordinating the collaboration with content partners from the museum and performing arts sector in this project. This means we are localising relevant content together, acting as the point of contact for participating partners, monitoring the image research and ensuring a clear, efficient flow of audiovisual content from our archive system to the image database. The metadata we use is vital here; education requires different descriptions from those used in an archive. The content is therefore being enriched with learning object metadata, among other things, for example to describe what subject area and level of education an item is suitable for.
The content is contextualised in collections in the Archief voor Onderwijs, so teachers can start using it quickly and easily in their lessons. These collections also receive extra attention during our educational platform training sessions.
Approach
Four researchers and tutors from the primary education degree course at VIVES – each specialising in one subject area from the field of musical education: visual arts, drama, music and dance – are collaborating on this project.
Together with primary education teachers, they’re looking at the requirements and difficulties for promoting art appreciation in a practical classroom setting. What does an audiovisual content collection need in order to ensure it is effective, efficient and appealing for pupils?
We’re also working on making educational and subject-specific content available in the Archief voor Onderwijs. Together with our content partners and Art in Flanders (another meemoo platform), we’re identifying audiovisual and expressive source materials that can be used in the field of musical education
The researchers from VIVES are developing learning and teaching support to help primary school teachers use digital audiovisual content in the classroom. We want to offer teaching tips to use audiovisual collections in a high-quality and targeted way, to make a fundamental contribution to developing digital and visual literacy for teachers and pupils alike.
The framework we’re developing, which will provide insights into teachers’ needs and recommendations for teachers in training, will be made available afterwards. The digitally developed collections and insights are also being included in the rich educational offering provided by the Archief voor Onderwijs. Make sure you keep an eye on our channels.
Do you want to join this project as a content partner? Click here for more information (in Dutch only).
For any questions about this project, please email leen.debruyn@meemoo.be.