Pending review: Ofsted's research review in practice

Ofsted's research review for music presents an interesting insight into this government's view of the principles upon which music education in our schools should be constructed. It offers a range of conceptual, theoretical, and pedagogical starting points that should certainly be considered and discussed throughout the music education community. Ofsted states that these research reviews are designed to help ‘provide a set of guiding principles for subject leaders' (Ofsted 2021). These principles draw on a selected set of research from various sources. The precise method by which this was done for music is unclear, but in general guidance, Ofsted says that a range of academic sources were consulted (Ofsted 2021).

Two of the key criteria of a research or literature review are authenticity and transparency. These are key to making judgements about why particular research sources have been selected and how the ideas therein have been ‘used’ by the author. The author's identity is a mystery. However, it is interesting to note that there are strong overtones within it of the recently published Model Music Curriculum, and there has been some speculation that the main author of this research review also had significant responsibility for the previous document too. The detailed rationale for the choice, use and combination of particular pieces of research is entirely absent. From a methodological perspective, these are serious omissions.

I would argue that the Ofsted research review for music is less of a research or literature review and more of an opinion piece. However, now that the review is published and schools are expected to take its contents on board, we'll look at three key areas within it and consider how teachers might make informed reflections on their practice in light of this document.

Curriculum planning

The first key application of ideas from the review relates to curriculum planning. It presents the idea of foundational pillars that could underpin a school music curriculum, and which can be used to generate a developmental framework through which students can develop their musicality. The key pillars presented are:

• Technical – the processes and skills needed to translate intentions into sounds;
• Constructive – knowing how musical components come together both in an analytical and creative way;
• Expressive – the more ‘indefinable’ aspects of music such as quality, meaning and creativity.

When you look at your music curriculum, can you identify elements of these pillars within it? If not, what other structural devices or ideas can you identify at this fundamental level that are used to help you generate opportunities for your students to develop their musicality during their time with you?

Later in the report, Ofsted presents a series of ideas about how the overlapping of these ‘pillars of progression’ can result in opportunities for students to develop their musical understanding. In a similar way to the National Curriculum for Music – with its key focus points of performing, composing, listening, reviewing and evaluating – it stresses the importance of the interrelationship between the pillars and the importance of using them in a holistic way. This will have important consequences for how you choose key activities for your music lessons and, from that, how you define the key learning objectives that you are wanting your students to engage with (or vice versa).

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Pedagogy

Moving away from curriculum planning, development frameworks, and learning objectives, the second half of the review explores a range of key pedagogical issues that will be of interest to music teachers. It promotes the view that the delivery of a music curriculum is an art not a science. It relies on the personality, subject knowledge, and teaching skills of the individual teacher. The precise ways in which these are combined in the act of music teaching is a powerful and unique pedagogical approach. To put it another way, there is no curriculum development without teacher development. Your music curriculum will only develop and improve as you develop and improve yourself as a music teacher.

To that end, read through the second half of the review and use this individual focus on your teaching practice as a lens through which to view the document's key messages. It focuses on a number of areas here, including issues associated with feedback and guidance, pupil attention and motivation, and assessment. There is a lot of detail and there may be well be things that you strongly disagree with, as well as things that you recognise as good practice and would agree with.

As an example, within the section on pupil attention and motivation, the review talks about student agency. It presents the view that too much focus on student agency (such as giving students' choices about key curriculum content) could be detrimental to their development and work against the key aim of their schooling. What do you think about this? It flies in the face of much recent evidence from innovative music education programmes such as Musical Futures, which many music teachers have found helpful. The review itself reaches a compromise through suggesting that the amount of student agency that is allowed is, at the end of the day, another part of the teacher's overall decisions about the curriculum and how it is delivered (perhaps that's a false choice from a student perspective, but I think we know what the authors mean here). What do you think? How might this change your own practice? When would it be right to give students more agency or take back more control? How would you know?

School systems

Finally, no teacher teaches in a vacuum, and the review concludes with some interesting observations about how schools are organised and the way in which music, as a subject area within them, is situated. It mentions several things that schools do that may have a detrimental impact on the music education that you are trying to deliver to your students, such as over-bearing assessment frameworks, limited curriculum time, short Key Stages or carousels of activities that mean that longer-term musical learning opportunities are lost. Many music teachers will recognise these problems but will have questions about how Ofsted will be challenging schools that fail to address these shortcomings and what they can do about this in the meantime. Answers are in short supply here. However, it will be important for you to be familiar with the arguments presented in the final part of the review and use them in discussions with your curriculum managers in school when appropriate to do so.

The way in which a quality music education experience for all students is delivered could be changing in a significant way if these messages are taken seriously and enforced by Ofsted. As music teachers, we can play an important part in this change by not settling for whole school systems that impact on our subject area in a negative way. Music teachers can do this in an informed way by using evidence, including some of the research presented in this Ofsted review, to help substantiate their own personal opinions. In this way, the research review is a helpful tool for music teachers to begin that process of positive transformation for music education in their schools.

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www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-music