"Radically Responsive Music Schools" is a philosophical reimagining of music higher education culture from the ground up, arguing that holistic cultural change is the key factor needed for music schools to prepare 21st-century graduates for contemporary challenges. The author discusses how university and conservatory music programs can…

The purpose of this article is to highlight the relationship between general music and social and emotional learning. Social and emotional learning involves a set of social, emotional, behavioral, and character competencies that are essential to success in school, in the workplace, within relationships, in the community, and in life. Music…

Music teachers may be tasked with documenting ways in which broader literacy skills have been embedded in music teaching. As a result, musical goals might seem to take a secondary role in support of broader language-literacy skills. Enhancing music literacy should be the goal of well-designed integration. The suggestions here provide music…

Strings teaching and learning has tended to emphasize performance rather than the quality of experience for the children. School instruction has become rigid and focused on technical accuracy. Alternative teaching strategies must be pursued in order to provide a challenging yet enjoyable experience of playing and learning the bowed string…

Although it is not their intent, conventional curricula may place some students at a disadvantage in school music classrooms. This article offers a practical planning strategy that music educators can use to confront and resist some of these curricular tendencies in subtle yet important ways. By reimagining long-standing norms related to content,…

Growth mindset, or the belief that talents and abilities are malleable and can grow, is known to hold immense benefits in the world of education. What benefits could it hold for our students' musical growth as well? This article explores the many benefits of instilling a growth mindset into our ensembles by examining research in educational…

In his bestseller "The World is Flat," Pulitzer-winning author Thomas L. Friedman discusses the concept of globalization and its "flattening" effect on the world. Globalization is a hugely controversial and complex issue, and the effects of globalization and the new needs of a global society may be especially important to music educators. By…

"Talking Points: Discussion Activities in the Primary Classroom" encourages and supports classroom discussion on a range of topics, enabling children to develop the important life-skill of effective group communication. Children who can explain their own ideas and take account of the points of view and reasons of others are in the process of…

This 21st Century Skills Map is the result of hundreds of hours of research, development and feedback from educators and business leaders across the nation. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has issued this map for the core subject of the Arts.

There is so much to learn about each branch of music education that most teachers continue on a narrow path throughout their careers. Since Henry Ford started the first mass-production assembly line in the early 1900s, there has been a tendency for people in American society to specialize, and some educational leaders strongly recommend that…

Integrating experiences with music in the early childhood classroom supports English language learners' literacy development (Peregoy and Boyle, "Reading, writing, and learning in ESL." Pearson, Boston, 2008; Saricoban and Metin, "Songs, verse and games for teaching grammar." Internet "TESL J," 2000). This article describes the benefits of…

Music educators must prepare students to survive and thrive in the global world of today (and in the anticipated future) through their best scholarly efforts. The magnitude of change caused by globalization requires a complete reexamination of school music offerings grounded in the realities of the global geo-sociopolitical environment--not…

Within a theoretical framework drawn from sociologists of education Bourdieu and Bernstein, this paper will examine some of the findings of an ethnographic case study conducted with a secondary school music teacher and one class of her pupils in Wales. This teacher attracted 25% of Year 10 (14-year-old) pupils to study music as an optional subject…

The development of music skills, particularly performance skills, is often considered separate from creativity until music skills can be used in a creative way. Though an accumulation of music skills is necessary for high levels of creativity, a student's creativity can in turn develop music skills, and the primary grades (K--2) are the ideal…

Music instruction is organized by skill and concept in this 12-part curriculum guide. In parts 1 and 2, a statement of philosophy is followed by a conceptual chart providing an overview of the 1-12 curriculum by concept. Kindergarten curriculum is outlined in part 3. Part 4, which outlines concept development for grades 1 through 6, is subdivided…