Reflective Essay On Music Education

As a music educator, I believe that student learning happens in several ways; many that are transferable to education in general. Based on the philosophies set forth by Reimer (2003), Elliot (1995), and Small (1998), students should be able to learn through high quality aesthetic experiences, praxial experiences where application of acquired knowledge and skill sets that are central to school to everyday life, and social experiences inside and outside the classroom to best interact with society as positively as possible. The process of learning should be presented in a natural, spiral, and cyclical way; allowing students to progress at a steady pace and feel safe to revisit or explore concepts that still need comprehension. Additionally, the process of learning should be paced to allow students to apply what they have learned in practical applications inside the classroom to make for life-long learning skills for life. …show more content…
While the nature of music education is predominately aural, the profession itself has evolved its practices to use visual, kinesthetic, cognitive, and affective pedagogies that have strong interdisciplinary advantages. For example, music can be used to teach grade school children about their bodies through kinesthetic musical cues (i.e. “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”) or grammatical mechanics through catchy melodies like those found in the American Broadcast Company’s learning series, School House Rock. Additionally, students can use some of the masterworks in music as well as the relevancy of popular music to make connection to historical events and social movements. An example of this type of learning can be seen in making the connections between hymns and spirituals and period music from Detroit’s Motown Record Company and how they spurred several events within the 1960’s Civil Rights