Creativity is one of the most complex, mysterious and fascinating aspects of human behaviour. All great inventions and discoveries, including all forms of artistic expression, depend on creative thinking of the highest order. The Hong Kong Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum (Curriculum Development Council, 2006) emphasises the significance of teachers’ roles in promoting children's creativity during early childhood education. It encourages teachers to support creative qualities in children through the following specific goals:

These goals are in harmony with other Curriculum Development Council (CDC) documents and the Council's vision and overall aims of education for the 21st century, which place critical thinking skills and creativity in priority positions (CDC, 2000, 2001). Both these documents also highlighted the responsibility of schools to provide learning experiences for the development of the whole person in the domains of aesthetics such as music. The CDC (2001) emphasised the importance of encouraging kindergarten children to express their creativity confidently and to enjoy participating in creative activities. Despite these goals and vision, encouraging the musical creativity of children attending kindergartens in Hong Kong remains a challenge (Lau, Reference LAU2007). The reasons for this ongoing challenge are examined in the following section, where approaches to kindergarten education in Hong Kong are considered. In addition, musical creativity, the role of the teacher and children's musical notation are discussed. The methodology follows, where the approach to case study, data collection techniques and processes of analysis are explained. Findings are presented using a vignette of George aged 3 years and 6 months and data from an interview with the teacher. The article concludes with some suggestions for encouraging musical creativity with young children where transmission approaches are common.

Kindergarten education in Hong Kong

More than a decade ago, the Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum (CDC, 1996) recommended a child-centred approach. It focused on the all-round development of children and the importance of ‘play, learning and care’ as the ‘three essential elements of daily activities in a pre-primary institution’ (p. 63). Like the 1996 version, the more recent Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum (CDC, 2006) also endorsed child centredness and learning through play. However, current teaching practices favour transmission models where teachers are the centre of the learning experience; a uniform curriculum, structured activities and prescribed resources are used, and group conformity, competition and rote learning are encouraged (Liang & Pang, Reference LIANG, PANG, Woodill, Bernhard and Prochner1992; Wong & Lau, Reference WONG and LAU2001a; Lau, Reference LAU2007). This kind of education centres on transmitting an understanding and appreciation of culture from past generations to succeeding generations (Bruner, Reference BRUNER2001). It involves passing down information and performance standards, and carefully moulding individuals to conform to societal values and practices. In particular, the kindergartens are teaching children a curriculum that is too advanced for their age (Education Commission, 1999). For example, children are required to write Chinese characters in a small square as homework, starting at three years of age.

This traditional transmission approach requires young children to sit at desks with paper, pencils, worksheets and similar materials and to adhere to strict academic goals such as undertaking examinations, dictation, spelling and mechanical routine writing (Wong & Lau, Reference WONG and LAU2001a). However, according to the Education Commission (1999), the children have to ‘cope with too much homework’ (p. 15). They have very little time to engage in musical activities and consequently, the discipline of music is an at-risk area of education in many kindergartens in Hong Kong. When music is included, it is often a routine and highly structured component of the curriculum and involves breathing exercises, pitch practice, and an emphasis on the technique of singing songs. Children repeat songs many times until they can perform them well (Lau, Reference LAU2008).

Historically, early childhood education in Hong Kong has not placed a large emphasis on musical creativity. Most commonly, kindergarten children are taught to copy the teacher in whole groups, rather than engage in individual or free play musical activities in which children are free to explore and manipulate various materials, props and music instruments in the music corner. For example, it is common for all children to sing the same song in the same way, with little scope for creative invention (Liang & Pang, Reference LIANG, PANG, Woodill, Bernhard and Prochner1992; Lau, Reference LAU2008). Such practices are reflected in expecting kindergarten children, beginning at age three, to be involved in rote learning and recitation in unison, where the evaluation of children's music development is based on the number of songs they can sing (Liang & Pang, Reference LIANG, PANG, Woodill, Bernhard and Prochner1992; Lau, Reference LAU2008). Musical creativity generally is not valued, nor is music integrated across the curriculum or enhanced during children's free play (Liang & Pang, Reference LIANG, PANG, Woodill, Bernhard and Prochner1992). Instead, young children's music learning is confined to a rigidly scheduled group session, and all children are expected to attend. As Wong and Lau (Reference WONG and LAU2001a) and Lau (Reference LAU2007) noted, such activities tend to encourage conformity and discourage creativity. Despite the emphasis of the CDC documents (1996, 2006) on creativity, imagination and aesthetic appreciation, these strong historical traditions take time to change.

Creativity is linked closely to culture (Ng & Smith, Reference NG, SMITH, Lau, Hui and Ng2004), and children's musically creative acts are linked to the types of musical experiences they encounter in their education, family and community lives. In kindergarten and school, teachers can assist children with the skills of thinking musically, and can ‘construct an environment that fosters creativity’ (Henniger, Reference HENNIGER2002, p. 466). The musical environment and the music curriculum can have a significant effect on children's engagement with and exploration of musical creativity.

The influence of international research about children's musical creativity is yet to be experienced in many kindergartens in Hong Kong. The international literature encourages teachers of young children to provide environments that foster musical creativity and ‘appropriate guidance from adults’ (e.g. Kemple et al., Reference KEMPLE, BATEY and HARTLE2004, p. 32). With increasing precision, children can imitate and distinguish among rhythm and tone patterns (Isenberg et al., Reference ISENBERG, JALONGO, STAMP, Isenberg and Jalongo2006). These processes usually involve risk-taking and a willingness to go beyond established rules, plus the discipline to complete the task to a level of self-satisfaction (Sternberg & Lubart, Reference STERNBERG and LUBART1995). Consequently, how teachers assist children's musical creativity and learning within kindergarten contexts is highly significant. Of importance to the Hong Kong kindergarten context is Wright's (Reference WRIGHT2003) comment that encouraging or limiting creativity depends on whether creativity is valued and ‘whether the creative products complement or challenge their own viewpoints’ (p. 13). While risk-taking is a quality relevant to creative productivity, if teachers are focused only on their lesson objectives and content delivery, children's creativity can be stifled (Wright, Reference WRIGHT2003). Children's input and products can be regarded as irrelevant, particularly if they do not reflect the material presented in class.

Kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong have beliefs about children's learning that focus on good academic achievement (Wong & Lau, Reference WONG and LAU2001b) and the transmission of knowledge. Children are required to complete many worksheets in a daily programme (Wong & Lau, Reference LAU2008), and most of this and other work is directed at cognitive development (Wong & Lau, Reference WONG and LAU2001a). Mechanical drilling, dictation, spelling and routine writing occupies most of the children's time during group activities (Wong & Lau, Reference WONG and LAU2001a, Reference WONG and LAU2008). The expectations of both teachers and parents of Hong Kong children centre on academic rather than aesthetic aspects (Wong & Lau, Reference WONG and LAU2001a). Consequently academic subjects are valued more than creative musical activities (Wong & Lau, Reference WONG and LAU2001a), which creates challenges for kindergarten teachers implementing the Hong Kong Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum (CDC, 2006).

Recent research concerning the development of creativity has identified the significance of both teachers and learners in the process (Jeffrey & Craft, Reference JEFFREY and CRAFT2004). Characteristics that are important for learners include using a combination of imagination and experience to enhance their learning; opportunities to contribute to classroom curriculum and pedagogy; collaborating with others on learning tasks, and learners critically evaluating their own learning (Jeffrey, Reference JEFFREY2001). It is possible to introduce these ideas and practices to young children and encourage their development with young learners. For example, children can be encouraged to be innovative in making decisions about materials and resources, add their own meaning to tasks and develop their own personal plans for tasks (Craft & Jeffrey, Reference CRAFT, JEFFREY, Miller and Devereaux2004). An eclectic approach to teaching means teachers draw on a range of methods and strategies to suit individual circumstances with the overall aim of developing creativity. The relationship between teaching creatively and creative learning is also an important factor in the development of creativity in classrooms (Jeffrey & Craft, Reference JEFFREY and CRAFT2004). In this respect, Jeffrey and Craft suggest the focus should be the ‘creative teaching of the teacher and the creative learning of the learner’ (p. 86). Attention to the relationship between teachers and learners in the interests of creativity provides a contrast with approaches that focus on the difference between teaching creatively and teaching for creativity (Craft & Jeffrey, Reference CRAFT, JEFFREY, Miller and Devereaux2004).

Musical environments for young children that foster creative teaching and creative learning should provide opportunities for children to make their own music, listen to music, and perform their own and other's music (Barrett, Reference BARRETT and Wright2003, p. 76). Engagement with music as an individual, with small groups of children and with the whole group is also important. Barrett recommends a balance between child- and teacher-directed activities as they occur in individual, small group and whole group situations. For young children, Andress (Reference ANDRESS1998) endorses music play environments that include ‘an enticing play area that triggers curiosity and motivates children to become involved in making and responding to music either independently or within a small group’ (p. 164). Play is central to early education (Frost et al., Reference FROST, WORTHAM and REIFEL2005; Bredekamp & Copple, Reference BREDEKAMP and COPPLE2006) and is a primary vehicle for musical growth (Kenney & Persellin, Reference KENNEY and PERSELLIN2000). It is instrumental in developing children's creativity (Jensen, Reference JENSEN2000) and is a significant factor in enhancing children's musical creativity (Russ, Reference RUSS and Runco1996). Play can also involve symbolic thinking and the manipulation of symbols (Singer & Singer, Reference SINGER, SINGER, Fromberg and Bergen2006), which are central for problem solving and creativity. Many processes such as divergent thinking and openness occur in general as well as in musical play (Russ, Reference RUSS and Runco1996), but the quality of divergent thinking, symbolic thinking and symbolic manipulation depends on the teacher. Barrett (Reference BARRETT and Wright2003) identifies five key components of music programmes in early childhood education:

• • composing and improvising with instruments and voice;

• • notating music experiences;

• • singing invented and canonic song;

• • playing instruments;

• • listening to music (p. 76).

The five areas are interconnected and all should be included in a music programme for young children.

Few studies have investigated children's invented musical notations, particularly those of children under the age of five. Those exploring this area include Upitis (Reference UPITIS1992) who identified general stages in which children's invented musical notations develop and Davidson and Scripp (Reference DAVIDSON, SCRIPP and Sloboda1988), who proposed a typology based on children's notions of melodies other than their own (most of their examples are from children aged five and older). Upitis (Reference UPITIS1992) highlights the importance of surrounding children with musical symbols and sounds, treating children as composers and generating a real need for notation. When Davidson and Scripp considered children's notations of their own compositions they found similarities to the first (precommunicative) and last (correct) of the stages that occur when children are learning to spell. Barrett (Reference BARRETT and Wright2003) proposes that symbolising or ‘notating’ musical experience can provide ‘some indication of children's thinking about music’ (p. 77). She noted that children draw on a range of strategies when making symbols to represent musical experiences and that these strategies can include:

• • the depiction of the instrument played or the narrative content of a song;

• • the ‘playing out on paper’ of a rhythm pattern or gesture;

• • the adoption of abstract symbols (a cross, a circle) to represent musical patterning;

• • the adoption of conventions such as variation in size to depict a musical element such as dynamic change (p. 77).

Children's invented notations show elements of their other contextual engagement such as visual arts, mathematical symbols and Western ways of writing music, and often show similarities to invented writing (Barrett, Reference BARRETT and Wright2003).

Although many Hong Kong kindergartens still adopt traditional transmission approaches to teaching, there are some teachers whose practices are moving towards the promotion of musical creativity in young children (Wong & Lau, Reference WONG and LAU2001a; Lau, Reference LAU2008). The case reported here is of one Hong Kong kindergarten teacher's beliefs and practices about the development of musical creativity and the creative music education that occurred within her classroom. The research question that guided the larger study was:

• • What are the beliefs and practices of Hong Kong kindergarten teachers about music education, and how do they support young children's musical creativity?

Results and discussion

From the video records and field notes of Miss Yu's classroom, the following excerpt about notation was selected as an example of how Miss Yu encouraged children's musical creativity. Recall that in Hong Kong kindergartens transmission approaches are common and that even though curriculum documents have emphasised aesthetics such as music for some time, the academic curriculum remains a strong feature.

Miss Yu demonstrated her support and encouragement of George's individual expression by providing an atmosphere in which George felt free to explore the sound-making resource, even though it was fragile glass (see Fig. 1). After explaining about the fragility of glass, Miss Yu stood back and let George explore the features of the sounds. Miss Yu's actions are consistent with the ideas of Craft and Jeffrey (Reference CRAFT, JEFFREY, Miller and Devereaux2004) in encouraging George to experiment with the glasses of water, creating his own melodies and songs. Barrett (Reference BARRETT and Wright2003) too, indicated the importance of children making their own music. When George had finished improvising with the water glasses, Miss Yu engaged his attention by asking if there was anything he could do with the crayons. George made no response but continued to watch carefully. Through making a mark on the paper with a red crayon each time the glass with red water was struck, Miss Yu made George aware of how he could notate music, that is, how to record on paper the sounds he had been making with the glasses. One of the strategic points in encouraging children's musical creativity is knowing when teacher intervention is necessary. Woodward (Reference WOODWARD and Elliott2005) acknowledges that teachers must know when to intervene and when to allow children to continue to investigate individually or with small groups.

Fig. 1

George hit the glasses of the three colours, and invented musical notations

George responded to Miss Yu's questions and modelling (scaffolding) by recording the sounds on paper that he had played in process of making music. By pointing to the created marks and playing a tune which matched the marks, George made a connection between sound and symbol. He created song after song but made marks for the first song only, and improvised for the other songs. George used symbols to represent the different notes and this act of symbolising or ‘notating’ musical experience provided some indication of his thinking about music (Barrett, Reference BARRETT1999, Reference BARRETT and Wright2003). His invented notations drew on the demonstration provided by the teacher, and gave a picture of the narrative content of his songs. Through this process, he ‘played out on paper’ the rhythm patterns and pitches associated with his gestures. He adopted abstract symbols (straight lines with three colours) to represent the musical pattern. In notating his work, George explored the processes and practices of the act of ‘notating’ as an introduction to the formal symbol system of music (Barrett, Reference BARRETT and Wright2003). According to Barrett (Reference BARRETT and Wright2003), invented notation is ‘a powerful starting-point for discussion with a child and provides an opportunity to interrogate the nature and extent of a child's musical thinking’ (p. 78). When children notate, teachers can take note of the strategies they employ, their associations between the sound events and the symbols, and their comments on the aural and visual features.

The statement and question from Miss Yu about the crayons (‘There are some crayons and white paper next to you, do you think there is anything you can do with them?’) directed George's attention to the resources and suggested a connection between the crayons and his music making. The modelling helped George structure and organise his thoughts and assisted him to make a musical product (a song). Miss Yu's scaffolding showed George how to represent the songs he had created using abstract symbols (that is, invented notations) to represent the musical patterning. It also came at the right time for George, as another child may not have been able to respond in the way George did, or may already have known how to represent musical sounds on paper. If Miss Yu were to extend her scaffolding to ask George to play the music he had notated, and to listen for similarities and differences between the various repetitions, he might learn ‘to ‘retrieve’ his musical meaning from notations developed in the past’, and ultimately learn ‘to interpret the notations developed by others’ (Barrett, Reference BARRETT and Wright2003, p. 78).

George was engrossed in the playing process and seemed contented with his symbolic creation. Playing with the glasses and the scaffolding provided by Miss Yu enabled George to engage in symbolic thinking and to manipulate symbols (Singer & Singer, Reference SINGER, SINGER, Fromberg and Bergen2006), both of which are central to problem solving and the development of creativity. As Upitis (Reference UPITIS1992) states, children should be treated as composers. Once children understand the concept of notation, Upitis suggests generating a real need for it in the musical learning context. George's new skill may help him develop the confidence to apply this knowledge in new but different situations, and may even inspire him to show other children during free play. George's musical growth was nurtured by opportunities to explore the sound qualities of the glasses, to compose melodies and to notate them. His understanding might be further extended by positive comments about his music-making, by describing what he has done and conserving his music making through audio or visual recordings. This might motivate George to devise other simple notations to capture his music, and encourage him to find alternative ways of notating a variety of musical works.

Interview

During the interview, Miss Yu expressed her philosophy of teaching. When asked to discuss the benefits that children gained from free play in the music centre, she explained: ‘I believe that children learn from play. They can be assisted and scaffolded to have musical creativity through play, especially from drama, fantasy and imaginative play’. Miss Yu's explanations of the value of play are similar to those of Kenney and Persellin (Reference KENNEY and PERSELLIN2000) who consider play is a primary vehicle for musical growth. The children in Miss Yu's class enjoyed exploring new aspects of themselves and of being challenged to be creative in their musical endeavours. Miss Yu indicated that dramatic, imaginative and fantasy play provide challenges because play can be ‘spiritually’, emotionally and physically fulfilling for children, and all three aspects are integrated as children come to know themselves. In Miss Yu's view, because children are filled with expectations and enjoy imaginative play, a type of ‘free-expression’ is produced, which liberates the children creatively and musically. Russ (Reference RUSS and Runco1996) also identified the importance of play in enhancing children's musical creativity.

Miss Yu also stated that there are benefits for children as they gain confidence in their own ability during play. The children learn that acceptance of others is very important, and through an ethos of trust, are not afraid to try new things, because they realise that they are not going to be judged by every little thing they do. She also indicated that through imaginative play, children have the opportunity to recognize that they have different abilities in many areas, such as language, art or music, and to recognize that there is a variety of ways to achieve great things. Through confidence in themselves, they come to know and trust their own abilities. Miss Yu was strong in her belief that if children are given opportunities to develop imagination and self expression, they can be more creative. Here Miss Yu's views coincide with ideas about creative learning of learners (Jeffrey & Craft, Reference JEFFREY and CRAFT2004) in that she encourages the children to make decisions about materials and resources, and to add their own meaning to the tasks in which they are involved. In addition, Miss Yu is actively involved in scaffolding children's attempts (as with George) to enhance their learning (see Bruner, Reference BRUNER1986).

Miss Yu described her approach to scaffolding and the facilitation of children's play as occurring through active participation and engagement with them during their play. She stated that she guided children's musical play with strategies such as modelling, demonstrating, asking children questions to extend their ideas and understanding about musical creativity, and provided feedback to support children who did not know how to start a task. She facilitated learning by becoming a co-participant in children's construction of knowledge. Such scaffolding included helping children explore self-generated graphic notation (as in George's case), engage in instrumental improvisation of specific phrases for a familiar song and create new lyrics for a familiar song (see Lau, Reference LAU2007).

During the interview, Miss Yu indicated that the focus of her scaffolding was children's movement, singing, imaginative and instrumental play. It was apparent that Miss Yu felt comfortable and confident when dealing with children's instrumental play. She encouraged children's spontaneous music experiences, and found many opportunities to scaffold children's creative learning. Miss Yu stated that children can be more expressive in musical free play than when participating in a conventional music programme. Yet it was evident that her musical background assisted her in finding opportunities to help children in the application of more complex and abstract aspects of musicianship during the musical play (see Lau, Reference LAU2007).