Young students generally don't make up their lessons as they go along. But many music educators are encouraging just that by teaching composition alongside traditional musical concepts. Rather than simply relying on rote exercises that focus on basic musical principles and techniques, teachers are asking students to create their own music early on…

Reports observations of primary teachers (n=14) efforts to provide activity-based lessons for their pupils. Teachers' beliefs that their lessons were student-centered were not confirmed by the observations of the lessons. Discusses implications of the findings for inservice teacher education and parental involvement. (MDH)