Teaching Future Early Childhood Educators through
Music, Gamification, & Creativity
Creative research
Why is creative research important?
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Generates new perspectives: Encourages thinking beyond conventional frameworks to uncover novel insights and solutions.
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Bridges disciplines: Connects art, science, and education, fostering innovation through cross-disciplinary inquiry.
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Engages emotion and imagination: Uses creative expression to explore complex human experiences that traditional methods may overlook.
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Enhances problem-solving: Promotes flexible, divergent thinking essential for addressing contemporary challenges.
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Makes research accessible: Presents knowledge in more engaging, relatable, and impactful forms for diverse audiences.
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Drives pedagogical innovation: Inspires new teaching methods and learning experiences grounded in experimentation and reflection.
Music Lesson Plans for Pk1-3
1
Informal music learning, pioneered by Lucy Green (2002, 2006, 2017), offers a powerful alternative to traditional classroom teaching by integrating students’ interests in popular music and bridging informal and formal learning styles.In our recent scoping review following PRISMA guidelines, we analyzed 28 peer-reviewed studies (2006–2023) on informal music learning worldwide.
Key insights:
• 🌍 Diverse contexts and methodologies show the global relevance of informal approaches.
• 👩🏫 Teachers, students, and policymakers engage with informal learning in different, evolving ways.
• 🎶 Benefits include stronger autonomy, motivation, creativity, and collaboration among learners.
• ⚖️ Challenges remain in teacher training, assessment design, and curriculum integration.
Our findings call for hybrid models that blend structured guidance with the freedom and authenticity of informal learning, empowering students to make music that truly matters to them.
2
This article introduces practical strategies and examples for pre-service early education programs and teachers to design music- and movement-based curricula that enrich both teacher preparation and early childhood classrooms.
To address inconsistencies in early childhood music programs, the authors developed the Lighthouse Framework — a constructivist model that guides teachers to learn through doing, adapt teaching methods in real time, and integrate music and movement meaningfully.
Key takeaways:
• 🎵 Promotes hands-on, reflective learning in teacher preparation.
• 👩🏫 Encourages authentic teaching practice and immediate feedback.
• 💡 Offers an adaptable framework for future curriculum design.
Through building a path for more creative, responsive, and embodied learning, the Lighthouse Framework empowers educators to nurture young children’s joy in music and movement.
3
Digital games are often seen as a double-edged sword, while they can have drawbacks, they also hold tremendous potential for cultivating essential 21st century skills.
This first meta-analysis to examine digital games’ effects on all four 4C skills: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication, analyzed 50 effect sizes from 37 studies.
Key findings:
• 🌟 Digital games have an overall positive, medium effect on 21st century skills (g = 0.55).
• 🧠 Critical thinking shows the strongest improvement (g = 0.85).
• 💬 Communication improves moderately (g = 0.77).
• 🤝 Collaboration (g = 0.41) and creativity (g = 0.37) show smaller yet positive gains.
• 🔍 Moderator analysis identified key influences such as discipline focus, game type, online format, and grade level.
These findings affirm that when designed and implemented thoughtfully, digital games can be powerful tools for nurturing critical, creative, and collaborative learners in the 21st century.
4
This study examines how definitions of creativity evolve within the context of musical giftedness and talent development, using a collaborative autoethnographic approach that analyzes the lived experiences of two musicians.
Drawing on Sternberg’s WICS model, we introduce the MwSIC Model of Creativity: a framework that places an individual’s life story at the core, surrounded by the interwoven dimensions of Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity in nurturing talent.
Key insights:
• 🌱 Challenges traditional, product-oriented views of musical achievement.
• 🎨 Advocates a process-oriented model that values growth, reflection, and adaptability.
• 💭 Encourages embracing ambiguity and the creative journey as essential to artistic development.
This research reframes creativity as a lifelong, evolving process, offering new directions for how educators and institutions can support musically gifted learners in becoming innovative and reflective artists.
5
As digital game–based learning (DGBL) becomes more common in classrooms, it offers a creative bridge between informal and formal music education. This systematic review examined 15 empirical studies (2011–2023) exploring how DGBL supports musical learning. The analysis focused on:
• 🕹️ The platforms and musical objectives of various DGBL tools.
• 👩🏫 The methodologies, participant profiles, and learning outcomes reported.
• ⚖️ The challenges and limitations acknowledged (or overlooked) in existing research.
Findings show that while DGBL enhances engagement, motivation, and musical understanding, many studies underexplore key issues such as long-term learning impact, assessment validity, and teacher facilitation.
This review highlights the promise of DGBL as a dynamic tool for 21st-century music education—while calling for more critical, theory-informed, and context-aware research to guide its meaningful classroom integration.
6
This article explores how gamification can transform music education for young learners by promoting intentional learning, creativity, and collaboration through play.
Rather than relying on digital tools, the authors designed a cooperative board game–style learning model that incorporates clear objectives, challenges, and progressive stages using a “player scaffolding” approach.
Key takeaways:
• 🎯 Encourages active engagement and purposeful learning.
• 🎨 Fosters creativity and problem-solving through hands-on play.
• 🤝 Strengthens collaboration and teamwork among students.
• 🧩 Demonstrates the potential of nondigital gamification in music composition and learning.
The study highlights the power of gamified design to inspire and empower young composers—turning music learning into an interactive, joyful, and deeply meaningful experience.
7
This participatory action research investigates the effectiveness of the movement-based, constructivist “Lighthouse Framework” (Weatherly & Weatherly, 2023) in enhancing music learning within Macau’s higher education context.
Using a mixed-methods design, the study included pre- and post-intervention surveys (N = 71) and two focus group discussions (n = 12) to evaluate students’ musical content knowledge, learning preferences, and development of the 4Cs — Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity.
Key findings:
• 🌟 The Lighthouse Framework significantly improved confidence, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.
• 🎓 It fostered a student-centered, interactive learning environment grounded in reflection and co-creation.
• ⚙️ Challenges included group coordination and leadership navigation, but these were minor compared to the overall benefits.
This study highlights the transformative potential of the Lighthouse Framework as a pedagogical innovation capable of revitalizing collaborative learning and advancing constructivist teaching practices in Macau’s higher education landscape.
CONTACT
Project "Playful Pedagogy"
University of Macau
Faculty of Education
Project Lead Email: