National Core Arts Standards require students to use feedback from peers to refine both their performances and their compositions in the artistic processes of Create and Perform. When asked to give feedback to a peer, many students stop at comments like "It sounds good," and do not naturally give specific, meaningful feedback. Therefore,…

In this article, the author discusses composition studies by examining how incorporating "songwriting" into a first-year writing course enables students to begin expressing their own ideas/perspectives, while also developing the ability to create the concise, detailed texts associated with academic writing. The discussion offers a…

This socioculturally informed study examines space-time configurations of students' technology-mediated creative learning practices in a Finnish elementary school over a school musical project. This study focuses on the social practices of 21 students who worked with personal laptops, wireless internet access, and a collaborative writing service,…

In this case study, the author investigated intersections of secondary students' musical engagement in a Songwriting and Technology Class (STC) and outside of school. The study traces the experiences of three individual participants and three participant groups (six embedded cases in total) in the creation, performance, recording, and production…

Drawing on Vygostky's zone of proximal development this study explores the ways preservice teachers engage with The Human Bean Activity that was designed to make visible the abstract idea of identity and community. This qualitative narrative analysis explores the talk produced by 47 predominantly White, straight, and female preservice…

The present study aims to contribute to the understanding of the effects of music education, in particular music composition as a classroom activity for fifth- and sixth-graders. The intervention (experimental condition) focused on a three-step-model for music composition, based on the Cultural Historical Activity Theory of education, and has been…

Music education scholars and veteran teachers often assert that composition is an essential part of a child's participation in music, but like many music educators, the author was reluctant to include it as part of her daily beginning band curriculum. Time and money were limited, and she wanted to be sure to cover all the material that beginners…

This article reports on a particular aspect of a PhD study into pupil composing in music classrooms with information and communications technology (ICT). Two case studies based in England investigated the work of two groups of pupils in different phases of education, one aged 12-13 (secondary) and the other 10-11 (primary). A theoretical lens that…