Examines an in-service training program in music for child-care personnel working with infants and toddlers. Concludes that in-service training of child-care personnel in music results in improvement in group leadership and music skills. Infants and toddlers showed increased visual and vocal engagement. (DAJ)

Notes that music instruction enhances children's self-esteem and develops a variety of skills. Presents guidelines for music programming in early education, including: (1) selecting music to help young students feel successful; (2) including movement activities; (3) using children's names whenever possible; (4) utilizing music terms to enhance…

This article presents technology tips and ideas for music educators. To keep current with music technology, you will need to spend time with it regularly, just like you would practice a musical instrument or voice. Basic office software programs can help you with administrative tasks and duties. Your computers are important tools for your program,…

The impact of the radio in the 1930s can be compared to the force of change in people's lives today caused by current technology. Marguerite V. Hood (1903-92), a recognized leader in the music education profession during the 1930s, understood the importance of music education radio broadcasts for rural one-room schools and music education classes.…

The author shares her experience when she accepted an invitation from Jianhua Lu, a music teacher and a visiting scholar at the University of Minnesota, to spend two weeks teaching teachers in China. While there, she gave presentations at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and at the Northwest Normal University in Lanzhou and Tianshui…

This manuscript considers the way that several creative media--including music, videography, visual arts, literature, drama, play, and altar-making--can be utilized in assisting the multifaceted grief process of clients. In particular, attention is given to the ability of creative media to enable clients to maintain a connection to the deceased,…

This article reports on a project called, "Everyday life as a perspective on music education in the classroom." Part of this project involved the construction of texts and lyrics by a group of students from year 5, in weekly music lessons at a regular primary school from Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The article…

"Didaktik" of music is the science and art of teaching music in terms of determining goals, contents and methods. It is both a scholarly field of research and a teacher's craft. "Didaktik" raises issues which neither curriculum research nor pedagogical methodology address in the same way. The main intent of this article is to…

In this essay, the author describes her view of the concept of the aesthetic in music education as "essentially contested" and subject to reinterpretation. She attempts to expand "traditional" notions of the aesthetic in music education beyond a view of the aesthetic transaction as "passive," focused on audience-listening for traditional…

This paper explores 122 secondary school students' perceptions of the choral learning environment. A survey questionnaire was developed taking into consideration the responses of a pilot study in which students were requested to list what they liked and disliked about the choir. The participants rated their degree of agreement on a five-point…

In this second of a two-part series, the author outlines the basic structure of the kind of school that will help the children of poverty gain ground and so reduce the learning gap. In an attempt to establish far more effective high-poverty schools, the author proposes one approach, which is the Hi-Perform School redesign for high-poverty…

In this article, the author, an elementary school teacher at Totoket Valley Elementary School in North Branford, Connecticut, describes how she uses music of the 1950s as a vehicle for teaching skills. She has found that selecting songs that have fun, peppy, and clean lyrics, and also lend themselves to teaching a particular skill, is a great way…

Many orchestra teachers have experienced feelings of panic when they first read the National Standards and realize that the coalition standard is for performance ensembles as well as general music classes. Teachers who are responsible for starting beginners or who teach intermediate players may wonder about the feasibility of teaching composition…

Sharing classroom practices across international borders can add new dimensions to teaching methods, no matter where one calls home. With this idea in mind, the authors (two U.S. early childhood teacher educators and a Kenyan-born U.S. early childhood teacher) have corresponded for several years through e-mail with a small group of early childhood…

Despite three decades of research, gendered participation in music continues to be problematic. While many aspects of Western society maintain a patriarchal stance in the workplace, it is apparent that girls have made some significant changes in their musical choices. Males, it seems, are maintaining the same preferences for instruments as they…