Your Brain on Music


Book Description

Music education has been scientifically proven to have cognitive benefits; these benefits include: greater attention span, increased ability in geometrical skills, improved performance in mathematical problem solving and spatial tasks, heightened fluency in reading, and greater short-term and long-term memory. These benefits give music educators a platform from which to advocate for the retention and growth of their programs and to encourage music as a lifelong pursuit.




Trauma and Resilience in Music Education


Book Description

Trauma and Resilience in Music Education: Haunted Melodies considers the effects of trauma on both teachers and students in the music classroom, exploring music as a means for working through traumatic experiences and the role music education plays in trauma studies. The volume acknowledges the ubiquity of trauma in our society and its long-term deleterious effects while showcasing the singular ways music can serve as a support for those who struggle. In twelve contributed essays, authors examine theoretical perspectives and personal and societal traumas, providing a foundation for thinking about their implications in music education. Topics covered include: Philosophical, psychological, sociological, empirical, and narrative perspectives of trauma and resilience. How trauma-informed education practices might provide guidelines for music educators in schools and other settings Interrogations of how music and music education may be a source of trauma Distinguishing itself from other subjects—even the other arts—music may provide clues to the recovery of traumatic memory and act as a tool for releasing emotions and calming stresses. Trauma and Resilience in Music Education witnesses music’s unique abilities to reach people of all ages and empower them to process traumatic experiences, providing a vital resource for music educators and researchers.




Music Education for Social Change


Book Description

Music Education for Social Change: Constructing an Activist Music Education develops an activist music education rooted in principles of social justice and anti-oppression. Based on the interviews of 20 activist-musicians across the United States and Canada, the book explores the common themes, perceptions, and philosophies among them, positioning these activist-musicians as catalysts for change in music education while raising the question: amidst racism and violence targeted at people who embody difference, how can music education contribute to changing the social climate? Music has long played a role in activism and resistance. By drawing upon this rich tradition, educators can position activist music education as part of a long-term response to events, as a crucial initiative to respond to ongoing oppression, and as an opportunity for youth to develop collective, expressive, and critical thinking skills. This emergent activist music education—like activism pushing toward social change—focuses on bringing people together, expressing experiences, and identifying (and challenging) oppressions. Grounded in practice with examples integrated throughout the text, Music Education for Social Change is an imperative and urgent consideration of what may be possible through music and music education.




"Destined to Fail"


Book Description

How eugenics became a keystone of modern educational policy







Teaching Music in Higher Education


Book Description

"This book is designed for faculty and graduate assistants working with undergraduate music majors as well as non-majors in colleges and universities in the United States. It includes suggestions for designing and organizing music courses (applied music as well as academic classes) and strategies for meeting the developmental needs of the undergraduate student. It addresses concerns about undergraduate curricula that meet National Association of School of Music requirements as well as teacher education requirements for music education majors in most states. A common theme throughout the book is a focus on "learner-centered pedagogy" (Weimer, 2013) or trying to meet students where they are and base instruction on their individual needs. The text also maintains a constant focus on the relationship between teaching and learning and encourages innovative ways for instructors to assess student learning in music courses. Teaching is connected throughout the book to student learning and the lecture model of "teaching as transmission of information" (Bain, 2004) is discouraged. Activities throughout the book ask instructors to focus on what it means to be an effective teacher for music courses. As there is limited research on teaching music in higher education, we have relied on comprehensive texts from the general education field to help provide the research base for our definition of effective teaching (Davis, 2009; Svinicki & McKeachie, 2014)"--




Teaching General Music


Book Description

General music is informed by a variety of teaching approaches and methods. These pedagogical frameworks guide teachers in planning and implementing instruction. Established approaches to teaching general music must be understood, critically examined, and possibly re-imagined for their potential in school and community music education programs. Teaching General Music brings together the top scholars and practitioners in general music education to create a panoramic view of general music pedagogy and to provide critical lenses through which to view these frameworks. The collection includes an examination of the most prevalent approaches to teaching general music, including Dalcroze, Informal Learning, Interdisciplinary, Kodály, Music Learning Theory, Orff Schulwerk, Social Constructivism, and World Music Pedagogy. In addition, it provides critical analyses of general music and teaching systems, in light of the ways children around the world experience music in their lives. Rather than promoting or advocating for any single approach to teaching music, this book presents the various approaches in conversation with one another. Highlighting the perceived and documented benefits, limits, challenges, and potentials of each, Teaching General Music offers myriad lenses through which to re-read, re-think, and re-practice these approaches.




The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning


Book Description

Featuring chapters by the world's foremost scholars in music education and cognition, this handbook is a convenient collection of current research on music teaching and learning. This comprehensive work includes sections on arts advocacy, music and medicine, teacher education, and studio instruction, among other subjects, making it an essential reference for music education programs. The original Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning, published in 1992 with the sponsorship of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), was hailed as "a welcome addition to the literature on music education because it serves to provide definition and unity to a broad and complex field" (Choice). This new companion volume, again with the sponsorship of MENC, explores the significant changes in music and arts education that have taken place in the last decade. Notably, several chapters now incorporate insights from other fields to shed light on multi-cultural music education, gender issues in music education, and non-musical outcomes of music education. Other chapters offer practical information on maintaining musicians' health, training music teachers, and evaluating music education programs. Philosophical issues, such as musical cognition, the philosophy of research theory, curriculum, and educating musically, are also explored in relationship to policy issues. In addition to surveying the literature, each chapter considers the significance of the research and provides suggestions for future study.Covering a broad range of topics and addressing the issues of music education at all age levels, from early childhood to motivation and self-regulation, this handbook is an invaluable resource for music teachers, researchers, and scholars.




The Oxford Handbook of Preservice Music Teacher Education in the United States


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Preservice Music Teacher Education in the United States identifies the critical need for increased cultural engagement in Pre-K-12 music education. Collectively, the handbook's 56 contributors argue that music education benefits all students only if educators activelywork to broaden diversity in the profession and consistently include diverse learning strategies, experiences, and perspectives in the classroom. In this handbook, contributors encourage music education faculty, researchers, and graduate students to take up that challenge.Throughout the handbook, contributors provide a look at ways music teacher educators prepare teachers to enter the music education profession and offer suggestions for ways in which preservice teachers can advocate for and adapt to changes in contemporary school settings. For example, educators canexpand the types of music groups offered to students, from choir to jazz ensemble. Building upon students' available resources, contributors use research-based approaches to identify the ways in which educational methods and practices must transform in order to successfully challenge existing musiceducation boundaries.