Perret, conductor of the Winston-Salem symphony, chronicles how a brief feature on National Public Radio about music and the brain inspired him to create an innovative music education program for children.

Making Meaning is a synthesis of theory, research, and practice that explicitly presents art as a meaning making process. This book provokes readers to examine their current understandings of language, literacy and learning through the lens of the various arts-based perspectives offered in this volume; provides a starting point for constructing broader, multimodal views of what it might mean to “make meaning”; and underscores why understanding arts-based learning as a meaning-making process is especially critical to early childhood education in the face of narrowly-focused, test-driven curricular reforms. Each contributor integrates this theory and research with stories of how passionate teachers, teacher-educators, and pre-service teachers, along with administrators, artists, and professionals from a variety of fields have transcended disciplinary boundaries to engage the arts as a meaning-making process for young children and for themselves.

Providing a distillation of knowledge in the various disciplines of arts education (dance, drama, music, literature and poetry and visual arts), this essential handbook synthesizes existing research literature, reflects on the past, and contributes to shaping the future of the respective and integrated disciplines of arts education. While research can at times seem distant from practice, the Handbook aims to maintain connection with the live practice of art and of education, capturing the vibrancy and best thinking in the field of theory and practice. The Handbook is organized into 13 sections, each focusing on a major area or issue in arts education research.

Ever wonder what is going on in a baby's brain? Or how you can best nurture a child's natural development? Or why exactly Bach is better than Mozart for babies? This book will explain why. No technical knowledge is necessary, as Shore makes recent neurological findings accessible to all those who come into contact with young children. Everything a baby experiences in his or her first five years is building the foundation of life's learning potential. Through increasing the complexity of the early childhood environment in developmentally appropriate ways, we can nurture young children's brains. Developing Young Minds is a must-have for new parents or caregivers of young children.

Providing guidance for parents who want their children to enjoy learning to play a musical instrument, this resource teaches parents the best ways to encourage children's musical talents. Key guidance is provided for the trickiest hurdles of all: helping children learn how to practice and navigating their impulse to quit by encouraging them to take pride in their progress despite the frustrations of the learning process. Commonly taught methods--including Suzuki, Kodaly, Dalcroze training, and the Orff approach--and instrument selection are discussed in detail, as are tips for choosing the right teacher. Up-to-date resources and references for youth orchestras, national and regional organizations, outreach programs, and school advocacy organizations, and supplementary materials for various ages and stages of ability, are provided.

Learning to Teach Young Children provides you with the tools to critically engage with the key concepts and beliefs in early childhood education theory and practice. The book is organized around ten propositions that are explored in relation to 30 key questions, for example: - What does it mean to honour children's right to be different? - What does it mean to learn? - How can images of childhood be used as frames for practice? Original comic-book style illustrations are used to explore key theoretical concepts in an accessible and engaging way. The book also includes a companion website offering overviews of the key concepts covered in the book, supplementary information and references, reflective questions and case studies to support your learning.

From an award-winning neuroscience researcher with twenty years of teaching experience, Multiple Pathways to the Student Brain uses educator-friendly language to explain how the brain learns. Steering clear of “neuro-myths,” Dr. Janet Zadina discusses multiple brain pathways for learning and provides practical advice for creating a brain-compatible classroom. While there are an abundance of books and workshops that aim to integrate education and brain science, educators are seldom given concrete, actionable advice that makes a difference in the classroom. Multiple Pathways to the Student Brain bridges that divide by providing examples of strategies for day-to-day instruction aligned with the latest brain science . The book explains not only the sensory/motor pathways that are familiar to most educators (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic), it also explores the lesser known pathways--reward/survival, language, social, emotional, frontal lobe, and memory/attention--and how they can be tapped to energize and enhance instruction. Educators are forever searching for new and improved ways to convey information and inspire curiosity, and research suggests that exploiting different pathways may have a major effect on learning. Multiple Pathways to the Student Brain allows readers to see brain science through the eyes of a teacher—and teaching through the eyes of a brain scientist.