Power and Choice in the Teaching and Learning of Music

Author(s):  
Chee-Hoo Lum

This chapter opens a critical dialogue about the relationship between technology and the teaching and learning of music, with key emphasis on notions of power and choice. The chapter’s discussions revolve around technology as provision for (1) access to the musical world as sound through digital forms and formats, (2) greater opportunities for the most basic beginner in music to explore and experiment with sound, (3) wide/r choice and variety in listening, performing, and creating for both the “trained” and “untrained” musician, (4) compressed time and space in musical experiences and environments, and (5) questioning what constitutes musicality, a musician, and skill acquisition. Music educators need to draw closer links between the widening gap of school music with learners’ daily musical-technological experiences and become more cognizant of the multimedia and multidisciplinary space that the digital native learner is engulfed in, so as to further notions of creative work within the music classroom that might include these experiences.

Author(s):  
Alice M. Hammel ◽  
Ryan M. Hourigan

Classroom behavior is a common concern among many music educators. This is particularly true for music educators who teach in inclusive settings. This chapter is designed to provide effective tools and strategies at the micro-level (e.g., behavior and management techniques), and the macro-level by informing the reader of philosophical underpinnings that encompass a successful inclusive classroom. The socialization and lasting relationships that all students develop in school are also of considerable importance. Therefore it is imperative for music educators to strive for a caring, inclusive environment that is conducive for all students to learn. The practical strategies suggested at the end of this chapter are presented to encourage music educators to create a tolerant, caring classroom that is conducive for music teaching and learning. Many of the techniques discussed in this chapter are just examples of good teaching regardless of what population of students you are teaching. Effective classroom management begins long before the students enter the music room. A well-prepared environment is essential for optimal instruction and is particularly important when teaching music to students with special needs. This groundwork can be time-consuming and requires a thoughtful approach to the classroom setting; however, it is well worth the planning when the classroom becomes an inclusive and student-centered environment. Conroy, Sutherland, Snyder and Marsh (2008), explains that specific teacher interventions can lead to improved student behavior. These interventions include: (a) close supervision and monitoring, (b) classroom rules, (c) opportunities to respond, and (d) contingent praise. As music educators, we can apply these principles to music classrooms. The next section of this chapter is designed to relate these interventions to music teaching and learning, and to provide strategies for music teachers. Close supervision and monitoring. Conroy et. al found that close supervision and monitoring can by implemented in the music classroom in the following ways: (a) student proximity to the teacher; (b) a music teacher’s ability to visually monitor all students; (c) active engagement with students; (d) student access to teacher; and (e) ratio of adults to students that is conducive to close supervision.


1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Finney

All reflective music educators ponder the questions posed by this title. Over the years, they have channelled an enormous amount of energy into the improvement of musical teaching and learning in our schools. Ross (1995) argues that these efforts continue to be futile, for the basis of thought and practice is misconceived. This paper examines Ross's thesis highlighting and developing its existential component. A case study illustrates the argument for placing authentic self-expression and ‘music proper’ within the context of wider contemporary debate.


Author(s):  
Martin Fautley

This chapter discusses how National Curriculum content and assessment in England have been subverted by performativity and accountability requirements. This has had the effect of moving music teaching and learning in secondary school music classes away from a focus on musical content and music making toward meeting the demands and requirements of an accountability system. The twin effects of schools second-guessing what they think the inspection regime (Ofsted) will want to see, allied with a close scrutiny of pseudo-positivist attainment data, means that the musicality of the assessments undertaken by classroom teachers can be called into question. The important issue of knowledge types in music education is also discussed. England operates a music education somewhat different from that in many other jurisdictions, with a focus on what might be termed generalist classroom teaching and learning for all students. This has an impact on the ways in which assessment can be undertaken, and these issues are discussed. Important findings of interest and relevance to an international audience are drawn out, and key points are made that are relevant to both music educators and administrators of public education systems.


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marissa Silverman

The purpose of this critical ethnography was to investigate how music educators can approach the development of students’ music listening abilities democratically in order to deepen students’ musical understandings and, by teaching through music, create pathways for student–teacher transactions that are inclusive, educative, ethical and transformative. Critical ethnographies utilise qualitative data collection methods (e.g. observations, journaling, interviews, audiotapes) for sociopolitical and ethical purposes. That is, critical ethnographies are ‘critical’ in two senses: (a) they are framed and carried out with a social-ethical sense of responsibility to critique and, if necessary, change the status quo of specific contexts they investigate and (b) they are grounded in ‘a self-referential form of reflexivity that aims to criticise the ethnographer's own production of an account’ (Schwandt, 2007, p. 51). One finding of this critical ethnography of my urban music classroom is that students are most apt to learn music listening effectively and enjoyably when afforded democratic and creative opportunities to express their beliefs about the natures and values of the musics they decide to select, experience and discuss critically. Another finding is that although democratic teaching and learning inevitably involves conflicts, participants can and do learn to manage and transform these conflicts constructively. One important implication of these findings is that music classrooms can be powerful contexts and means for students’ social-ethical development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Martin

School choice has become an increasingly available option for families in the United States. Given the current political climate, music educators must better understand the various dimensions of the school choice movement and how it may affect the music classroom. Following a brief history of school choice, this article offers a look at the movement’s influence on the music teacher workforce, music curricula, and funding for music education. Recommendations surrounding the equity of school music opportunities are explored.


2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sybille Rockstroh ◽  
Karl Schweizer

Effects of four retest-practice sessions separated by 2 h intervals on the relationship between general intelligence and four reaction time tasks (two memory tests: Sternberg's memory scanning, Posner's letter comparison; and two attention tests: continuous attention, attention switching) were examined in a sample of 83 male participants. Reaction times on all tasks were shortened significantly. The effects were most pronounced with respect to the Posner paradigm and smallest with respect to the Sternberg paradigm. The relationship to general intelligence changed after practice for two reaction time tasks. It increased to significance for continuous attention and decreased for the Posner paradigm. These results indicate that the relationship between psychometric intelligence and elementary cognitive tasks depends on the ability of skill acquisition. In the search for the cognitive roots of intelligence the concept of learning seems to be of importance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulmalik Usman ◽  
Dahiru Musa Abdullahi

The paper seeks to investigate the level of productive knowledge of ESL learners, the writing quality and the relationship between the vocabulary knowledge and the writing quality. 150 final year students of English language in a university in Nigeria were randomly selected as respondents. The respondents were asked to write an essay of 300 words within one hour. The essays were typed into Vocab Profiler of Cobb (2002) and analyzed the Lexical Frequency Profile of the respondents. The essays were also assessed by independent examiners using a standard rubric. The findings reveal that the level of productive vocabulary knowledge of the respondents is limited. The writing quality of the majority of the respondent is fair and there is a significant correlation between vocabulary and the witting quality of the subjects. The researchers posit that productive vocabulary is the predictor of writing quality and recommend various techniques through which teaching and learning of vocabulary can be improved.


2019 ◽  
pp. 263-269
Author(s):  
Nwakwengu S.A. ◽  
Aneke C.U.

The main purpose of this study was to determine the influence of urbanization in teaching and learning of agriculture in Ebonyi State. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population was 397 which comprised 261 teachers of agricultural science in Ebonyi State and 136 senior secondary three students from 5 public secondary school in Abakiliki, Ebonyi State. No sampling was done due to the manageable size of the population. The instrument used for data collection was a 17 item questionnaire which was validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha which yielded reliability index of 0.85 indicating that the instrument was suitable for data collection. The questionnaire was distributed by the researcher and three trained research assistants. Out of 397 copies distributed 383 were properly filled and returned representing 96.47 percent return rate. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and t-test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses. Based on the data analysis, it was found that urbanization affects the quality of teachers in rural schools due to rural urban migration, increases the rate of agricultural teacher‟s turnover in teaching and reduces government attention to agricultural science teaching facilities in urban areas. Recommendations were made among, others that Government should be make teaching of skill acquisition in urban settlement to be attractive to the students and teachers should make instruction facilities to meet the needed skills and contemporary issues in urban settlement to the students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Snider Bailey

<?page nr="1"?>Abstract This article investigates the ways in which service-learning manifests within our neoliberal clime, suggesting that service-learning amounts to a foil for neoliberalism, allowing neoliberal political and economic changes while masking their damaging effects. Neoliberalism shifts the relationship between the public and the private, structures higher education, and promotes a façade of community-based university partnerships while facilitating a pervasive regime of control. This article demonstrates that service-learning amounts to an enigma of neoliberalism, making possible the privatization of the public and the individualizing of social problems while masking evidence of market-based societal control. Neoliberal service-learning distances service from teaching and learning, allows market forces to shape university-community partnerships, and privatizes the public through dispossession by accumulation.


Journal ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Okely

Drawing on a multiplicity of learning, teaching and educational experiences, I argue that understanding positionality, or the specificity of each individual, triggers necessary unlearning. Confronting hitherto hidden, subjective knowledge may be the means to recognize grounded learning as ethnocentric and time and space specific. The individual may learn positionality through unexpected contrast, especially through anthropology. The anthropologist is the participant observer, analyst and writer - no managerial delegator, but directly engaged. Learning through engaged action, anthropologists unlearn what they have consciously and unconsciously absorbed from infancy. New embodied knowledge is often gained through making mistakes in other unknown contexts, thus fostering unlearning. This article explores the above themes through an autobiographical account of experiences of both teaching and learning.


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