South African unit standards for culture and arts education and music as an elective sub-field

Abstract

As a member of the MEUSSA (Music Education Unit Standards for Southern Africa) research project, the author in this dissertation explored the Culture and Arts learning area in South Africa. It departs from the premise that Arts Education is essential for human development. The proposed Culture and Arts learning area is a programme where the Visual Arts, Dance, Drama and Music are integrated. A broad holistic approach that would provide a general background to the Arts to all learners in South Africa is envisaged. Current South African education stresses that learners should develop their creative and critical thinking powers and their problem-solving abilities. The adopted system of Outcomes-based education (OBE) and its application to the Culture and Arts learning area have the potential to facilitate these aims. The most relevant philosophical, psychological and didactic principles for heterogeneous South African education are those that encourage independent and creative thinking such as Metacognitive learning, the theory of Multiple Intelligences and theories on contextualised intelligence. The South African Qualifications Authority framework and the writing of unit standards for the Culture and Arts learning area are explored in Chapter 3. Unit standards for the Culture and Arts learning area (level 1) and for Music as an elective (levels 1-4) are the focus of respectively Chapters 4 and 5. The MEUSSA group adopted the MEUSSA model to map unit standards for Music as an elective. The author, however, extended the model to include the integrated Culture and Arts learning area. It is concluded that conceptualised and contextualised learning is essential for appreciation and understanding of the Arts. The MEUSSA. model provides structures for meaningful and synoptic learning for all learners in South Africa.