Environmental Influences

The way in which students experience the curriculum is heavily influenced by the environment and school community that the students reside in. Offering a doublebass course gives students an opportunity to engage in an active, culturally authentic music making program with no prior experience. The content is directly influenced by the culturally developed bodies of knowledge that our students bring. Although doublebass instruction has specific learning outcomes, learners are able to show their learning in a variety ways that are influenced by them. For example, students can apply skills to music that are familiar to their culture. They can choose a variety of songs to represent their music preference/background. This content is heavily influenced by the lived experiences that our students bring to the classroom.

Students are encouraged to find their musical voice through the study of doublebass. This means that at the core of the curriculum design there needs to be an understanding that change is inevitable and the outcomes are comprehensive in process. And that there is systematic progression at the same time as making the curriculum relevant by assessing choices and alternatives in programming as well as monitoring and improving the curricula as the needs of the students, society and new influences appear.

Moving away from the direct consideration of the student and their environment is the structural environment of the course delivery. For the purpose of this document, there are two working options for the delivery of lessons:

1) individual lessons either in person or video conferencing and/or

2) group lessons based on skill level.

Schedules need to reflect what is possible for a teacher to provide and when students might best be able to receive lessons. The nature of the geographical catchment area of the students, travel to and from lessons, student safety and equitable participation needs to be considered. This may be beyond the scope of the individual teacher and would therefore be the domaine of the administration of the district. It would be very important for the teacher to be able to identify the influencing factors for enrolment and be able to bring those elements forward to and administrative conversations.