Teaching and Learning Music through the Lens of Computational Thinking

摘要

In recent years, many countries around the world have intensified their efforts to introduce computational thinking in schools. This paper supports this educational move not by proposing the teaching of computational thinking as a subject per se but by taking inspiration from the nature of such systematic and logical thinking to reframe the teaching and learning of music. After clarifying what computational thinking involves, it presents some parallels between computational thinking and musical thinking, principally, decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithmic thinking. From a teaching perspective, this comparative juxtaposition elucidates how computational thinking can provide a fresh lens on musical thinking, and in turn inform and transform the teaching and learning of music. In fact, this proposed pedagogical move can potentially broaden the disciplinary purview when design thinking is brought into the picture, yet without sacrificing disciplinary grounding in the subject itself.