The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how high school marching band instructors described extra-musical life skills teaching strategies in Northern California within the Western Band Association (WBA) organizational circuit. Theoretical foundations of this study were social emotional learning (SEL) based on the seminal…

Th? cr?ativity and g?n?ral cognitiv? d?v?lopm?nt of stud?nts ar? gr?atly aid?d by music ?ducation. In China, th? gov?rnm?nt has tak?n action to nationaliz? th? curriculum in r?cognition of th? valu? of music ?ducation and to ?nsur? that childr?n across th? country r?c?iv? consist?nt, ?xc?ll?nt music training. This study aim?d to ?xamin? th? impact…

This case study features pedagogical strategies that were used in the context of a mobile app for learning to encourage relevant engagement and participation. For 20 weeks, a group of 18 piano students, ages 10 through 15, used a mobile app known as PracticeCactus. This self-contained social media platform allowed young participants to create and…

How do we motivate students to practice and persist when facing challenges inherent in learning to play an instrument? In this article, I synthesize research findings into strategies to encourage students' mastery goal orientations and intrinsic motivation. Educators can use these strategies in the classroom or as inspiration to create innovative…

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to examine two music education students' experiences as String Project teachers (SPTs). Research questions were as follows: What connections were made between coursework and the authentic-context learning (ACL) experience? and What was the impact of ACL experiences on music teacher identity? Data were…

A significant amount of literature exists about how to design and implement an effective assessment process for students in a music program, specifically in the classroom setting. This article suggests a framework for incorporating individualized assessment in the private-lesson setting based on effective classroom assessment practices. Many…

In this study we investigated the visions of 12 music teacher educators who teach pedagogical courses called instrumental pedagogy and classroom music pedagogy in three music academies in Finland, Norway and Sweden. The data were collected through individual, semi-structured qualitative interviews. Drawing on Hammerness' concept of "teachers'…

The principal aim of this paper is to address the question of whether and how professional practice within an informal teaching and learning context (music) may be understood through a critical-geragogy lens. Secondly, we consider whether critical geragogy has relevance to and potential applications for enhancing practice among facilitators of…

The purpose of this project was to examine adult learning perceptions of a model music program with group piano instruction and group percussion ensemble for beginning-level musicians (ages 60-86 years). Participants were matched by age and education to two 16-week music programs. Forty participants completed a post-training questionnaire related…

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' practices and beliefs related to the teaching of stringed instrument tuning in elementary and middle school group classes. The aspects examined included the following: (a) teachers' beliefs about teaching tuning in their string classes, (b) activities teachers used when teaching tuning in string…