The purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to teaching listening in elementary school music and to make recommendations toward an ideal course of study in listening.

The purpose of this study was to examine the justifications for and production problems of presenting elementary children in public performances.

This project examines the work of four elementary music educators who strive to challenge the dominant paradigm of music education. I employed the methodology of a multiple case study (Merriam, 1998; Yin, 2009) to consider the discourses, practices, and philosophies of these four educators. I observed in each school for an eight-week period for two full days each week, conducting semi-structured interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of each observation process. At each school, I followed an observation protocol, in addition to completing three interviews, and keeping a journal. In this work, I mobilize a tri-faceted lens that combines the theoretical frameworks of anti-colonialism, anti-racism, and anti-racist feminism toward counterhegemonic goals. The teachers' diverse practices include critically engaging with issues of social justice, studying a broad range of musics, introducing multiple musical epistemologies, creating space for students to own the means of cultural production, contextualizing musics, considering differential privilege, and subverting hegemonic practices. In many ways, these four individuals interrupt the traditional Eurocentric focus on Western classical music to explore different possibilities with their students. However, within this work to subvert, there were moments in each classroom where the dominant paradigm was reinscribed. These subversions and reinscriptions are instructive to music education and carry broader implications for the discipline. Ultimately, this thesis argues that a truly radical music education involves shifting from a liberal to a critical paradigm. Many values and strategies traditionally found in liberal education can be reread radically, and doing so puts forward tenets of a radical music education. Within these four classrooms, there were myriad examples of this shift from a liberal to a critical orientation. However, this work also raises questions of positionality and asks explicitly which bodies are able to do radical anti-oppressive work in music education, acknowledging that it is possible to unintentionally reinscribe dominant power relations while working to subvert them.

This project examines the work of four elementary music educators who strive to challenge the dominant paradigm of music education. I employed the methodology of a multiple case study (Merriam, 1998; Yin, 2009) to consider the discourses, practices, and philosophies of these four educators. I observed in each school for an eight-week period for two full days each week, conducting semi-structured interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of each observation process. At each school, I followed an observation protocol, in addition to completing three interviews, and keeping a journal. In this work, I mobilize a tri-faceted lens that combines the theoretical frameworks of anti-colonialism, anti-racism, and anti-racist feminism toward counterhegemonic goals. The teachers' diverse practices include critically engaging with issues of social justice, studying a broad range of musics, introducing multiple musical epistemologies, creating space for students to own the means of cultural production, contextualizing musics, considering differential privilege, and subverting hegemonic practices. In many ways, these four individuals interrupt the traditional Eurocentric focus on Western classical music to explore different possibilities with their students. However, within this work to subvert, there were moments in each classroom where the dominant paradigm was reinscribed. These subversions and reinscriptions are instructive to music education and carry broader implications for the discipline. Ultimately, this thesis argues that a truly radical music education involves shifting from a liberal to a critical paradigm. Many values and strategies traditionally found in liberal education can be reread radically, and doing so puts forward tenets of a radical music education. Within these four classrooms, there were myriad examples of this shift from a liberal to a critical orientation. However, this work also raises questions of positionality and asks explicitly which bodies are able to do radical anti-oppressive work in music education, acknowledging that it is possible to unintentionally reinscribe dominant power relations while working to subvert them.

Overwhelming evidence supports the fact that music instruction greatly increases academic achievement on standardized test scores at the elementary, middle and high school level. When school districts face budget deficits, typically they alleviate the shortfall by eliminating music programs. Currently in Dallas ISD, teacher salaries are affected by how well a student performs on the STAAR exam. In this quantitative, causal-comparative study, 5th grade music STAAR mathematics scores are investigated to discover if instrumental music instruction using the Little Kids Rock Modern Band method improves academic achievement on the STAAR exam.

Up until recent technological developments in neuroscience and advancements in brain imagery techniques, educators and scientists had little insight into what was occurring in the minds of learners. These developments in the field of neuroscience have led to increased knowledge about how the brain develops and learns in childhood. Understanding how music is processed in the brains of young children may provide educators with insights about how to teach more efficiently and effectively, with the potential to either support or refute current classroom practices. Many music educators appear eager to bring strategies with a grounding in neuroscience to their classrooms. It is important then, to understand not only the limits of neuroscientific data and its applicability to classroom settings, but also the degree to which current music teaching practices either correspond or run contrary to current understandings in neuroscience. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of neuroscience recommendations by teachers in elementary general music classrooms; that is, whether current classroom practices correspond with the latest understandings of the developing brain as well as how and to what degree these recommendations for music teaching based on neuroscience are reflected in elementary general music pedagogy.

No description available.

The purpose of the study was to examine general music teachers’ practices of cooperative learning in two elementary music classrooms. Using the intrinsic case study method, I examined elementary general music teachers’ perspectives on cooperative learning, the utilization of cooperative learning in their general music classrooms, and the challenges the music educators faced in creating and implementing cooperative learning. I selected one general music classroom in two elementary schools in Boston, Massachusetts—totaling two general music teachers from different schools. I conducted eight class observations and three interviews for each participant during the fall 2016 semester. From separate and cross-case analyses, I found the following: (1) the two teachers’ instructions were linked to the characteristics of cooperative learning, (2) they believed that cooperative learning provided opportunities to improve students’ academic development in music and promote positive interpersonal relationships, and (3) both teachers used their own strategies for cooperative learning in order to maximize students’ learning. These findings provided evidence that cooperative learning engaged students in the process of learning music and, in addition, fostered positive interpersonal relationships. Moreover, this study suggested that music educators might undertake an effort to thoroughly understand students’ cognitive development when they wish utilize cooperative learning. Although this study was subject to a number of limitations due to its scope, the findings may contribute to the body of research on cooperative learning in elementary music education.

This theses consists of four chapters. The first chapter presents life and work of Václav Jan Tomášek and characterizes the historical context. The second chapter deals with practical use of his compositions for students at music schools and also brings to light songs of Tomášek which can be used in chamber music education. The third chapter deals with music project as a modern concept in education. Fourth chapter describes music survey and its evaluation. This work schould provide deeper knowledge about Czech music composer V. J. K. Tomášek and his piano work.

This work deals with the life and work of French Impressionist composer called Claude Achille Debussy and its utility in primary and secondary levels of art education. The first part focusses on the life and work of the composer and gives more details about his piano work. The second part, using the surveys and interviews of the teachers of elementary music schools, examines the use of Claude Debussy's work and Impressionism in teaching at elementary music schools and Conservatories. We can also find there the section with fully cited interviews with an elementary music school teacher who uses Claude Debussy and Impressionism works in her lessons and with a pupil who, under her direction, interpretes a compositon of Claude Debussy. There are eighty examples of the musical compositions by Claude Debussy attached and as well as the recording of an elementary music school pupil interpreting Debussy's Arabesque. KEY WORDS Claude Debussy, piano, piano composition, interpretation, utility in teaching, elementary music school, the Conservatory.