Human Potential, Technology, and Music Education

2017 ◽  
pp. 218-224
Author(s):  
Smaragda Chrysostomu
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
Technology In Education ◽  
School Life ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Humane Education ◽  
The Core ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning

Technology, music, and education, the interrelations and interactions between them as well their impact on music education and young people’s lives, are explored in the Core Perspectives of this part of this book. Writers describe how technology enables transcendence of boundaries between formal and informal learning and between school life and personal life, potentially providing the necessary bridge that would transform music learning. At the same time, a number of threats from the use of technology in education and music education are recognized. Common threads from three different Core Perspectives’ chapters are explored and discussed in relation to the ultimate goal of education. Further discourse and caution, as well as further research, is important in order to explore and clarify potential opportunities for a more humane education and future.

Healing bruises: Identity tensions in a beginning teacher’s use of formal and informal music learning

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Derges Kastner
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Informal Music Learning ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning ◽  
School Music ◽  
Definition Of

The purpose of this narrative case study was to describe the developing teacher identity of Nicole Downing, a first-year teacher in the US, in her use of both formal and informal learning processes. As music education continues embracing approaches like informal music learning, it should also reflect on the voices of teachers in the field. Data collection included interviews, observations, and participant writings. Findings revealed that Nicole (a) questioned and eventually accepted her music teacher identity, (b) exhibited a dualism between her use of formal and informal music learning processes, and (c) broadened her community’s definition of school music. Nicole used the metaphor of a bruise to describe how she believed some in her undergraduate studies would judge her interest in popular music and creative musicianship, but as she became a music teacher she had agency to incorporate the informal learning she valued. Nicole exhibited a duality in her use of formal and informal learning processes, which were not integrated in her teaching. Ultimately, she developed a broadened definition of school music that she believed was beneficial for students but perceived negatively by other music teachers. Music teacher education should support teachers’ diverse identities and continue to explore the teaching strategies used in facilitating informal music learning experiences.

Finding the “both/and”: Balancing informal and formal music learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-455
Author(s):  
Juliet Hess
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Formal Learning ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Informal Music Learning ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Structured Approach

This article explores the informal and formal learning experiences of 20 activist-musicians. Multiple activist-musicians utilized the informal learning strategies Green identifies. More than half of the participants, however, bemoaned the lack of more formal music education. They noted that they valued informal musical learning practices and also wished that they had experienced more of a balance between formal and informal music learning strategies in their music education. Many of the participants identified as being self-taught. In interviews, they shared ideas about teaching themselves and “figuring things out” musically. They discussed both wanting to move away from theory and needing theory. They further preferred a structured approach to education before moving to a more “free” pedagogy. Ultimately, they noted that the human relationships intrinsic to musicking may transcend the need for “training.” This article concludes by exploring implications of implementing a balance between formal and informal learning for K-12 schooling and teacher education.

Creating Multiple Sites of Engagement for Music Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-104
Author(s):  
Jonathan Savage
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
The Core ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Meaningful Relationships ◽  
Mindful Teaching ◽  
Specific Technology

Music education exists in multiple spaces. Within formal approaches to music education in academic institutions, there has been an acknowledgment that more informal pedagogical approaches can be useful (as evidenced in the work of movements such as Musical Futures). However, constructive links between formal and informal contexts for music education remain difficult to navigate for many teachers. Within the United Kingdom, the newly defined roles for music education hubs have made some headway in recasting these relationships in a more productive direction. Similarly, social media has an important role to play in developing new relationships between key agencies within music education. Like any specific technology, there are positive affordances and more negative limitations to such approaches. People have a complex relationship with technology, but they are not gadgets! Lanier’s (2010) thesis argues strongly that recent cultural developments can deaden personal interaction, stifle genuine inventiveness, and change people. Within an educational setting, careful consideration needs to be given to the affordances and limitations of social media. For teachers and designers of learning spaces and opportunities, pedagogy should be underpinned by careful, mindful choices—including wise choices about the tools that teachers and students are using. It is about a focus on the core, asking: What is the key learning that this music lesson is facilitating? Is this tool the best one for the job? Does this tool or approach allow one to teach music musically? Done skillfully and conscientiously, social media can help develop collaborative approaches to music education that provide teachers with pedagogical strength and security. They result in mindful teaching and mindful learning that will last a lifetime. They can also help teachers develop meaningful relationships with students that help them make sense of their musical experiences in whatever context they have emerged through: a truly, “joined-up” approach to music education with the student at the core.

Informal music learning, improvisation and teacher education

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Wright ◽  
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Free Improvisation ◽  
Informal Music Learning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Narrative Methodology ◽  
Communicative Context

This paper1 explores firstly the sense in which improvisation might be conceived of as an informal music education process and, secondly, the effects of a course in free improvisation on student teachers' perceptions in relation to themselves as musicians, music as a school subject and children as musicians. The results of a study conducted in two Greek universities are presented. Using a narrative methodology, examples of data from the reflective diaries or learning journals which 91 trainee teachers kept as part of their participation in an improvisation module are presented and discussed. The argument is made that improvisation, as a particular type of informal music learning process, has an important role to play in fostering the qualities required of teachers to work with informal pedagogies in music education. Furthermore, we would suggest that such musical experiences might gradually lead to the development of a critical perspective on both music education theories and practices. Improvisation might emerge as a moment and a practice of rupture with linearity of progress, working against reification of knowledge and glorification of received information. The findings suggest that improvisation might offer a route for creating an intimate, powerful, evolving dialogue between students' identities as learners, their attitudes towards children and their creative potential, and the interrelationships of the notions of expressive technique and culture, thus becoming ‘an act of transcendence’ (Allsup, 1997, p. 81). We propose that the issue of connecting informal learning and improvisation might be resolved by regarding improvisation as an exemplary case of creating a communicative context where most representations/conceptualisations/struggles to solve problems are left implicit. Such experiences for pupils and teachers alike might further extend the social and personal effectiveness of informal learning as music pedagogy.

Equity and Access in Out-of-School Music Making

2017 ◽  
pp. 502-510
Author(s):  
Kylie Peppler
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Equity And Access ◽  
Music Making ◽  
School Music ◽  
Pathways Model ◽  
Recording Studios ◽  
Out Of School

This chapter focuses on the importance of community to both music education and the ways that youth shape their ideas, interests, and identities in music. Musical learning is rarely, if ever, about a learner operating a new musical technology-based tool in isolation. Music is inherently social, and these influences have a great impact upon the development of musical identities. This chapter explores the ways that out-of-school spaces like those in the Computer Clubhouse Network, YOUmedia, and Musical Futures support social music learning by providing private recording studios that allow youth to assume increasingly public roles as musicians, performers, and producers. The chapter also describes how mixing formal, nonformal, and informal learning spaces helps to develop a youth’s musical maturity through what is known as the “progression pathways model.”

The Promise and Pitfalls of the Digital Studio

2017 ◽  
pp. 232-240
Author(s):  
Ethan Hein
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Group Activity ◽  
Educational Settings ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
School Music ◽  
Imaginative Play

Whether or not we make the best use of technology in the music classroom, young people will continue to find unexpected uses for it elsewhere. There is no historical precedent for the informal learning possibilities afforded by inexpensive and ubiquitous computers. Are young music learners best left to their own devices, literally and figuratively? Or can we structure a classroom around these devices, combining independent play with guided group activity? Will formal educational settings always compromise or even negate young people’s autonomy and independence? Perhaps if we think of the music room as a maker space rather than a classroom, we can admit some of the imaginative play and authentic expressiveness that students find outside school. Music education will happen wherever people gather together, using whatever materials are at hand. A school is necessarily an ad hoc society; ideally, it can be a genuine artistic community as well.

scholarly journals THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF THE USAGE OF PUPILS' SELF-EXPRESSION SKILLS ACQUIRED WITHIN MUSIC EDUCATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-113
Author(s):  
Iveta Kepule ◽  
AINA STRODE
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Data Processing ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Rank Correlation ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning

Aim. The aim of the research is to study the usage of primary school pupils’ self-expression skills acquired within music education in various social contexts. Methods. Theoretical research method – the analysis of literature, empirical data acquisition method – questionnaire. Statistical data processing has been carried out in IBM SPSS 23 programme, using the following data processing methods: frequency analysis; Mann-Whitney U test for the comparison of two independent groups; Kruskal-Wallis test for the comparison of three or more independent groups; Kendall rank correlation coefficient for the assessment of associations between two variables. Results. In the development of self-expression skills, an important aspect is the social performance criterion that is based on pupils’ need for self-expression in a social environment of practising music. Age and gender-based correlations in the assessment of a self-expression skill criterion "Social performance" indicate that with age pupils become more independent and engaged in music-related social activities. Girls are socially more active and emotional and engage in artistic activities more often. The research confirms the role of teachers in the development of pupils’ self-expression skills, promoting integration of formal and informal learning process and transformation in formal and informal learning environment. Conclusions. The dynamics and interactions of self-expression skills’ development factors (social, emotional and intellectual) defines pupils’ individual self-expression skills and development tendencies. Self-expression is important for pupils in social aspect, as it is related to socialisation in microenvironment (family) and macroenvironment (friends) and affects cooperation and communication.

scholarly journals Formal and informal learning situations or practices vs formal and informal ways of learning

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Folkestad
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Music Pedagogy ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Indigenous Music ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning ◽  
The Relationship

During the last decade there has been an awakening interest in considering not only formalised learning situations within institutional settings, but also all the various forms of informal musical learning practices outside schools. Informal musical learning outside institutional settings has been shown to contribute to important knowledge and aspects of music education. In this article, I will examine research studies which in different ways focus on formal and informal learning situations and practices or formal and informal ways of learning. I will consider the relationship between music education as praxis (music pedagogy) and as research, and the relationship between these two facets of music education and the surrounding society. I will identify four different ways of using and defining formal and informal learning, respectively, either explicitly or implicitly, each one focusing on different aspects of learning: (i) the situation, (ii) learning style, (iii) ownership, and (iv) intentionality. Formal – informal should not be regarded as a dichotomy, but rather as the two poles of a continuum; in most learning situations, both these aspects of learning are in various degrees present and interacting. Music education researchers, in order to contribute to the attainment of a multiplicity of learning styles and a cultural diversity in music education, need to focus not only on the formal and informal musical learning in Western societies and cultures, but also to include the full global range of musical learning in popular, world and indigenous music in their studies.

Music Learning Today

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William I. Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Promising Practices ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Software Applications ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Digital Pedagogy ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Approaches

Grounded in a research-based, conceptual model called Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK), the essential premise of Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music is that music educators and their students can benefit through use of technology as a tool to support learning in the three musical processes—creating, performing, and responding to music. Insights on how technology can be used to advantage in both traditional and emerging learning environments are provided, and research-based pedagogical approaches that align technologies with specific curricular outcomes are described. Importantly, the book advocates that the decision on whether or not to utilize technology for learning, and the specific technology that might be best suited for a particular learning context, should begin with a consideration of curricular outcomes (music subject matter). This is in sharp contrast to most other books on music technology that are technocentric, organized around specific software applications and hardware. The book also recognizes that knowing how to effectively use the technological tools to maximize learning (pedagogy) is a crucial aspect of the teaching-learning process. Drawing on the research and promising practices literature in music education and related fields, pedagogical approaches that are aligned with curricular outcomes and specific technologies are suggested. It is not a “how to” book per se, but rather a text informed by the latest research, theories of learning, and documented best practices, with the goal of helping teachers develop the ability to understand the dynamics of effectively using technology for music learning.

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