PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Drábek, Václav
TI  - ARTS AND CULTURE IN LIGHT OF THE NEW SCHOOL SYSTEM REFORM
DP  - 2007 Jun 11
TA  - Musicologica Olomucensia
PG  - 63--74
VI  - 9
IP  - 1
IS  - 27879186
AB  - In 2001, the government initiated school system reform; the concept of the reform presents in the White Book stipulated six primary strategic lines: 1. adaptation of educational and study programs to the living in an information society, 2. lifetime education, 3. efficiency and evaluation of the educational process, 4. promotion of internal changes and openness of educational institutions, 5. changes in the role and approach of educators, and 6. shifting from a centralized management system to self-administration of individual schools. The key objective of the reform is to transform the focus of schooling from presentation of ready-made knowledge to cultivation of skills of independent search for information, their processing and creative application.Individual school's educational activities should be based on the Framework Educational Program in which general educational goals are specified together with areas and competencies students should master. The Framework Educational Program reflects current trends in Europe, be it the arrangement or the contents: Language and Communication (mother tongue, foreign languages), Algebra (information and communication technologies), Humans and Environment (physics, chemistry, natural sciences, geography), Arts and Culture (music, fine arts, drama), Humans and Work (labor), Humans and Health (health education, physical education). Individual subjects form parts of larger sections, and integration becomes important at the very early stage of primary education, and it's very much emphasized at secondary schools. The Framework Education Program is to be elaborated on by each school and made into their own detailed curriculums, taking into consideration the focus of the school and the field of study as well as students' needs. The Framework Program defines curriculums only to the level of "content domains" which are not obligatory for but only recommended to the educator.The section of Arts and Culture covers wide-ranging issues of artistic and nonartistic cultures. Through integration of various kinds of arts some common features are to be presented, using the method of explaining the yet unknown with the already known, e.g. a musical collage is explained via a collage in fine arts, etc. The division of this section into four key sub-sections (literature, music, fine arts, and drama) is inevitable as interdisciplinary can only be a result of acquaintance with at least two fields of study.This approach is reflected also in the concept of music lessons at primary school that are part and parcel of the section of Arts and Culture. Musical activities (vocal, instrumental, listening and movement exercises) are interlinked with the learning about literature, fine arts and drama. The benefit of this approach is the overcoming of the dividing lines between receiving and creating, tradition and present, and the seeking of relations between music, aesthetics and human lives. In this regard, the author gives credit to the reform of music teaching introduced by I. Poledňák and J. Budík (1969) that together with other impulses (integrative musical pedagogy, poly-aesthetic education) served as an inspiring example for the current educational reform.The time of learning at primary school is viewed as a time of musical games, using of musical materials (musical workshops) a gaining an insight to music and its social functions. Methodologically, proactive work is preferred with a focus on students and semi-open teaching (the teacher sets the goal, and the student seeks ways of achieving it). The standing concept allows also for a wider integration than simple linking to different kinds of arts - it allows for an interdisciplinary integration that combines arts and aesthetics with the area of natural and social sciences. Commonly, this approach has the form of "project teaching".At the level of primary school, music is dedicated one lesson a week (grades 1 through 9), and two lessons a week at the first two grades of high school. The original plan of continuing with the section of Arts and Culture also at the third and fourth grade of high school in the form of joint lessons for musicians and fine artists has been rejected by the decision-making bodies, and thus a full integration of these areas has not been achieved. The curriculum would have focused on a universal development in the fields (creative workshops, multimedia projects, choir singing, chamber music, rock music, etc.). It is true that it is possible to teach these lessons as optional or facultative, but this very much complicates the student's chances to make any of these fields a part of the A levels examination.