This paper 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…

Discussions with math teachers, of various grade levels, brought out one consistent observation. Each year, students need to be retaught math concepts that they have been previously taught but have forgotten. With the ever-expanding curriculum of material that teachers need to cover over the course of a school year continually growing, it becomes…

Recently, in Australia both the "National Review of School Music Education" and "The Australian Curriculum" identify the importance of technology in school music education. However, the understanding of music technology, as demonstrated by state and territory curricular guidelines, is limited with technology mostly recognised…

No matter how dedicated they may be, some teachers are daunted by extreme challenges. Carol Agler, music director at the Ohio State School for the Blind (OSSB), is not one of those teachers. Since joining the OSSB staff 11 years ago, Agler has revived the school's long-dormant band program and created its first marching band. Next January, she…

In this ethnographic study, the musical behaviours of 28 primary school children in Singapore were examined for their meaning and diversity as they engaged in the school day. A large part of these children's musical behaviours stemmed from their exposure to the mass media. Children's musical inventions emerged in the context of play, occasionally…

"Sound Links" examines the dynamics of community music in Australia, and the models it represents for informal music learning and teaching. This involves researching a selection of vibrant musical communities across the country, exploring their potential for complementarity and synergy with music in schools. This article focuses on the…

While the teacher is still the coordinator and designer of classroom musical experiences, the teacher does not need to direct every activity every moment. The teacher's role is important, but it changes to shift the focus of classroom instruction from what the teacher will do to what the students will figure out. This includes carefully crafting…

Most information on the prevalence of drug use comes from self-report surveys. The sensitivity of such information is cause for concern about the accuracy of self-report measures. In this study, self-reported drug use in the last 48 hr is compared to results from biological assays of saliva samples from 371 young adults entering clubs. The…

In this article I draw on an ethnographic case study that examined mas' makers' perceptions of the learning/teaching practices at work in the production of costumes for Trinidad and Tobago's annual Carnival celebrations. During the 2005 Carnival season I spent four months in the field, my country of birth, and collected data through participant…

Environmental factors play a role in musical development, particularly in the critical period of early childhood. Children have the capacity to learn in the first days of life, long before entering formal schooling. Music education during this period is consequently the responsibility of parents, caregivers, and early childhood teachers. These…

This study presents an example of a music workshop which brought together pupils and students of different music schools, students of musicology, composition and classroom teaching, teachers, professors and composer on the common topics in contemporary music. The purpose of the workshop was to encourage an active and creative participation of…

Procyon LLC had re-launched and renamed their music discovery site, Electra, to Capella, in 2008. Its core strength had originated from Electra's proprietary technology, which used music libraries from real people, its members, to generating "automated word-of-mouth" recommendations, targeted advertising and editorial content. With the re-launch,…

As schools face tough decisions regarding budget cuts and program elimination, research regarding the importance of extracurricular activities is increasingly important. This study focused on the impact of involvement in band on student achievement as defined by GPA and attendance. Because students were only involved in band extracurricularly…

In this article we probe the interplay between public and private music consumption using a large-scale survey of the Flemish population in Belgium. We analyze whether public and private music consumption have different correlates and to what extent there is convergence between the genres that people listen to at home and at concerts. Results show…

Highlighting various seminal studies in music education provides grounding for the necessity of connecting children's school music experiences with their daily lived music experiences. Allowing children to make more seamless connections between these two contexts heightens the possibility of creating increasingly meaningful school music…