Análisis de la forja de bielas mediante elementos finitos

The researcher questioned the respondents about the elements that were taken into account when designing the current music degree courses, especially those that focus on music teacher training.

The first consideration that a Music Department at a university should consider, is the CHE (Council on Higher Education) requirements (CHE, 2011). That is, the national requirements for the number of notional learning hours that were required To what extent do current pre-service music teacher training courses at South African universities sufficiently prepare music teachers to cope with the challenges of teaching music as a subject from Grade 10 to Grade 12 in schools?

110 for a degree program. The limitations created by the existing credit system in place at universities were mentioned repeatedly by music teachers and university lecturers alike. Participant 12 explained it as follows:

“How the credits are worked out as equivalent of a set number of notional learning hours, how you need to account for those notional learning hours, and then associated with that as a sub-part, if you like, of what the HEQF – the Higher Education Qualifications Forum – then does, is it has its affiliation with SAQA, and SAQA … has the standards generating bodies, so they have various experts working on, what you might call a ‘model BMus degree’”.

This respondent continued to explain:

“…and we need to show that we (the university), you know, in order to get SAQA accreditation, we need to align ourselves with those recommended national norms.”

SAQA – or the South African Qualifications Authority – in collaboration with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the three Quality Councils namely, CHE, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi) and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) collaboratively try to ensure that South Africa will move closer towards achieving the ideal nation that values education and training by implementing the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). This framework provides a comprehensive system of classification and registration of quality qualifications (SAQA, 2006).

Bachelor of Music (BMus) degrees have certain core subjects that must be followed by all students. These include the specialisation in a main instrument, a study of music history and music theory. Theory is compulsory up to third year level; music history up to a fourth year level, as well as the study of the main instrument.

The second consideration is the different areas of specialisation that can be offered by the institution and what set of skills and knowledge each require.

 The most common BMus degree courses completed by the participants of this study were: BMus Performance, BMus Technology, BMus General and

111 BMus Music Education. The realm of teacher training falls into the latter course. Certain elective subjects are available for students to choose from and to enrich their courses, but these choices are limited by the credit constraints that will be discussed later. The different specialisations enable students to make their own choices and to study the subjects in which they have an interest.

 One of the most pressing concerns regarding the course content is that if students specialise in any of the three degree courses besides Music Education, no education subjects (besides methodology of their first instrument) are included. The fact that no education subjects are chosen creates problems when these students end up in teaching posts after completion of their studies. The problems encountered by these students are numerous.

o They are not “fully qualified as teachers” (Participant 1).

o They do not have the necessary pedagogical knowledge and skills necessary to be an effective teacher,

o Owing to credit constraints, these students could not study a second teaching subject.

o Without a second teaching subject they cannot get entry into professional teaching qualifications, such as the PGCE program (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) and,

o They cannot obtain permanent employment as teachers.

Participant 1, however, felt that it would be unfair to include modules dealing with pedagogical theory into the course content of specialisation areas such as Music Technology and Performance, but that the Music Department would have to relook at the credit weighting of certain modules within the realm of the Music Education course.

 The BMus Music Education course offers students the chance to acquire a general set of skills and knowledge and also to study the teaching methodologies in the fields they need. Lecturers are aware of the fact a “PGCE” (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) qualification is required for teachers to obtain permanent employment in secondary schools. However,

112 no provision has been made in the music degrees to facilitate modules that are required for entry into the PGCE course.

The Music Department at a university does not have the mandate to do professional teacher training and do not have the expertise from among their staff to design a music teacher training course. Participant 12 is quoted as saying:

“… if, for example, I have to go now to the Faculty Board and say ‘I’m designing a module for professional teacher training’, they will say ‘Are you crazy? It’s not your job!’. They will throw it out. The Education Faculty will immediately veto it, because it’s not… it’s not my place to do it.”

 Credit constraints also barred music education specialists from studying a second instrument.

Benchmarking the qualifications against other institutions nationally, without necessarily being told by the government to do so, is the third consideration that comes into play when designing music degree courses. Tertiary institutions have the need for their students to be both nationally and internationally competitive. This involves decision makers aligning themselves with the skills and knowledge sets a BMus graduate would need to have if they, for example, want to get acceptance into a Master’s degree program abroad. The ETCS credit system makes mobility between universities of different countries possible.

“With our BMus degree they go to Europe and they do a Master’s Degree in Performance, for example. We have a student who went to Switzerland recently to do her Master’s. … we need to be sure that she’s got everything that she needs to get into a Master’s program somewhere else.” (Participant 12)

Amongst all of these considerations, the provision of a well-designed course focussed on the needs of music teachers, appears to be of lesser importance. As an interviewee said:

113 “So in that sense, our concern with training teachers becomes,

unfortunately, quite a small subset of what we do, you know, in the larger scheme of things.” (Participant 12)