Chapter 5 The Integration of IT in Music Teacher Education in Taiwan
5.2 Pre-‐service training in the integration of IT for primary school music teachers
5.2.2 IT Related Courses
5.2.2.2 Postgraduate programs
Eight of the nine universities (the exception being the National Taitung University) offer the Master of Music degree. It is possible to major in music education in all eight of these Master’s degrees. In addition to offering this “generic” Master’s degree in music, four universities—the
National Taipei University of Education, the Taipei Municipal University of Education, the National Hsinchu University of
Education and the National University of Tainan—offer a degree specifically called Master of Music Education. The Master of Music Education is only offered to graduates who have teaching experience and this generally functions as in-‐service training.
Master of Music
As noted, the Master of Music degree is offered by eight of the universities in this study. Students elect to major in a particular field or stream: such as performance, composition, and music education. What follows relates to the IT courses in the field of music education offered to students studying for the Master of Music degree. The distribution of IT related courses is shown in Table 5.2. The elements of this table are the same as seen in the undergraduate section above. If the programs do not contain any IT related course, “None” is shown.
Table 5.2 IT Related Courses in Master of Music Programs in Music Departments
Uni. courses Req’d/
Elect. Sem. Hours/ Credit Points National Taipei University of
Education (NTUE) 國立台北教育大學 2003
None N/A N/A N/A
Table 5.2 IT Related Courses in Master of Music Programs in Music Departments (continue)
Uni. courses Req’d/
Elect. Sem. Hours/ Credit Points Taipei Municipal University of
Education (TMUE) 台北市立教育大學 2007
Design of Teaching Materials and Methods in Multimedia Music
多媒體音樂教材設計 ★
E N/A 2/2
National Hsinchu University of Education (NHCUE)
國立新竹教育大學 2009
Research on Computer Music
電腦音樂研究 E 2 2/2
Multimedia Music Course Design 多媒體音
樂教材設計 ★ E 2 2/2
National Taichung University (NTCU)
國立台中教育大學 2008
Technology of Music
音樂科技 E 1 2/2
Media Music
媒體音樂 E 2 2/2
Computer Music Theory & Application 電腦
音樂理論與實際 E 4 2/2
National Chaiyi University (NCYU)
國立嘉義大學 2008
Computer Music
電腦音樂 E 2 2/2
National University of Tainan (NUTN)
國立台南大學 2009
Multimedia for music instruction
音樂教學媒體 ★ E 1 2/2
Computer Assisted Music Instruction 電腦
輔助音樂教學研究 ★ E 2 2/2
National PingTung University of Education (NPUE)
國立屏東教育大學 2007
Applications of Music Technology
音樂科技應用 R N/A 2/2
National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)
國立東華大學 2008
None N/A N/A N/A
There are some significant messages that we can gain from this table:
1. Two of the university music departments offer no IT courses in their curriculum. Surprisingly, although the National Dong Hwa University offers the largest number of IT courses in the undergraduate curriculum, it does not offer any courses in the Master’s degree. The remaining universities offer one to three
2. Most IT courses are elective courses. The only institution to have a compulsory IT course is The National PingTung University of Education; and this IT course is the only one that it offers. By contrast, in the undergraduate degree, this university only offers elective courses in IT.
3. These IT courses all take two hours per week for two credit points. Compared to the undergraduate degree programs, IT courses account for a higher percentage of courses offered to students.
4. In most of the programs, IT courses are offered in the 1st year (the exception being “Computer Music Theory & Application” in the National Taichung
University). Two universities do not designate a particular semester in which IT is offered.
5. Across the universities, IT courses in music teaching account for a higher percentage of the overall program at the postgraduate level than at the undergraduate level. A likely explanation is that in the Master of Music degree students are required to study the application of IT as distinct from simply acquiring basic IT skills. Although most music departments offer IT courses in music instruction in both postgraduate and undergraduate programs, a few only provide it in one or the other level.
Master of Music Education
The following section presents the IT related courses in three of the four universities that offer a Master of Music Education program. (In one of these universities, the National Taipei University of Education, this degree program is only offered every second year and details are not available on the official website; for this reason the university is not represented in the table below.)
Table 5.3. IT Related Courses in Master of Music Education Programs in Music Departments
Uni. Courses Req’d/
Elect. Sem. Hours/ Credit Points Taipei Municipal University of Education (TMUE) 台北市立教育大學 2007
Research in Multi-‐media Music Pedagogy
多媒體音樂教學研究 ★ R N/A 2/2
Materials and Methods of Music Technology
電腦科技與教材教法 ★ E 1 2/2
Design of Aural Music Media
聽覺音樂媒體設計與製作 E 2 2/2 National Hsinchu University of Education (NHCUE) 國立新竹教育大學 2009
Multimedia Music Course Research 多媒體音樂教材研究 ★
E 3/4 2/2
National University of Tainan (NUTN) 國立台南大學 2009
Theory and Practicing of IT integrated Music Institution
資訊融入音樂教學理論與實務 ★ E N/A 2/2
Multi-‐media creation and teaching
多媒體創作與教學 ★ E N/A 2/2
The following is of particular interest:
1. All of the three Master of Music Education programs offer IT courses, and most of them are concerned with music teaching or instruction. Presumably this is because this degree is particularly relevant to music teaching.
2. All courses are two hours per week and represent two credit points. Similar to the Master of Music programs, IT courses in music teaching account for a higher percentage of the overall program at the postgraduate level than at the
undergraduate level in these institutions.
3. With the exception of “Research in Multi-‐media Music Pedagogy” in the Taipei Municipal University of Education, the other courses are all electives.
In summary, the IT courses offered by universities for both Master of Music and Master of Music Education are mostly electives. The ratio of IT courses compared to others is higher at the postgraduate level than at the undergraduate level. The IT
courses in the Master of Music Education programs have a stronger correlation with music teaching and instruction; this is not surprising, given the more pedagogical biases of this degree. Finally, it must be stressed that the above analysis of courses and degree programs has been based simply on course titles—and these are not necessarily a good indicator of their content. More detail relating to content was obtained through in-‐depth interviews with university teachers and graduate students, and this is presented in the following section.