Pereira, Ana IsabelRodrigues, Helena2024-11-252024-11-252024-06PURE: 100001443PURE UUID: 1eb70eae-3711-40c0-b9d2-3785bec9532fORCID: /0000-0002-4218-1028/work/172495081ORCID: /0000-0003-4519-6716/work/172495411http://hdl.handle.net/10362/175778UIDB/00693/2020 UIDP/00693/2020Gibberish consists of meaningless speech sounds, i.e., without semantic meaning. When used in theater exercises as a dialogue (see Spolin, 1985), it is possible to listen to distinct patterns of timing and exaggerated melodic narratives, such as those encountered in mother-infant communication, described as a form of communicative musicality (Malloch & Trevarthen, 2009). As part of a master’s in music teaching at a Portuguese university, 10 music education major students took part in a project connecting theory, research, and practice over the course of one year using gibberish as a leitmotif. The project was twofold: 1) in the first semester, to engage students in an exploratory study at a university research seminar, trying to answer, “What is the nature of a Gibberish conversation?”; 2) in the second semester, to support students in implementing a research music project with their internship classes of 5th and 6th graders based on gibberish. This approach encompasses the need to address the key elements of the research process by helping students develop research skills and providing them with a systematic way to reflect on their own practice (Conway et al., 2014). It also emphasizes that educational practice can be transformed through the curriculum and that teachers should be able to make choices on how to deliver it (Jorgensen, 2003). First, students recorded and analyzed gibberish dialogues according to temporality, frequency, intensity, and melodic contours using the software Praat; in their classrooms, gibberish gave place to graphic notation, use of technology, Orff arrangements, scat singing, and addressing emotions. Musical outputs and written statements from pupils were analysed. The project emphasised the musical nature of gibberish and how it triggered creative music-making in the classroom. Gibberish can be used as a powerful tool to promote communication, which is the essence of musical art.159039engMusic teacher trainingMusic curriculumCreativityGibberishAgencyMusicEducationSDG 4 - Quality EducationSDG 10 - Reduced Inequalitiesconference object