Although composing has been a significant part of formal classroom music education in England for over 30 years, there still remains uncertainty about how to teach and assess composing in secondary schools. This research investigates the under-researched area of teaching and learning of composing in upper secondary schools in England whereby students (aged 14–18) may opt to study music for a national qualification. Taking a mixed methodology approach, data were collected through a survey of 182 music teachers, interviews with five prominent composer-educators, as well as research with five case study schools involving observations of teaching and interviews with teachers and students. This paper reports on three prominent beliefs about composers that seem to underpin teaching and assessment practices; firstly that composers have innate musical talents; secondly that composing is solely an individual process and finally that students must learn the ‘rules’ of composing before being creative. This article proposes that these perceptions do not reflect the diversity of composers’ creative practices and may result in reinforcing stereotypes and myths about composers that have the potential to disadvantage certain students in the examination.

尽管 30 多年来作曲一直是英国正规课堂音乐教育的重要组成部分，但如何在中学教授和评估作曲仍然存在不确定性。本研究调查了英格兰高中作曲教学和学习中研究不足的领域，学生（14-18 岁）可能会选择学习音乐以获得国家资格。采用混合方法，通过对 182 名音乐教师的调查、对五位著名作曲家教育家的访谈以及对五个案例研究学校的研究（包括对教学的观察和对师生的访谈）收集数据。本文报告了关于作曲家的三个突出信念，这些信念似乎支撑着教学和评估实践；首先，作曲家具有与生俱来的音乐才能；其次，作曲完全是一个个人过程，最后，学生必须学习创作前的作曲“规则” 。本文提出，这些看法并未反映作曲家创作实践的多样性，并可能导致对作曲家的刻板印象和神话的强化，这些刻板印象和神话有可能使某些学生在考试中处于不利地位。