General music is informed by a variety of teaching approaches and methods. These pedagogical frameworks guide teachers in planning and implementing instruction. Established approaches to teaching general music must be understood, critically examined, and possibly re-imagined for their potential in school and community music education programs. Teaching General Music brings together the top scholars and practitioners in general music education to create a panoramic view of general music pedagogy and to provide critical lenses through which to view these frameworks. The collection includes an examination of the most prevalent approaches to teaching general music, including Dalcroze, Informal Learning, Interdisciplinary, Kodály, Music Learning Theory, Orff Schulwerk, Social Constructivism, and World Music Pedagogy. In addition, it provides critical analyses of general music and teaching systems, in light of the ways children around the world experience music in their lives. Rather than promoting or advocating for any single approach to teaching music, this book presents the various approaches in conversation with one another. Highlighting the perceived and documented benefits, limits, challenges, and potentials of each, Teaching General Music offers myriad lenses through which to re-read, re-think, and re-practice these approaches.

In the music classroom, instructors who hope to receive aid are required to provide data on their classroom programs. Due to the lack of reliable, valid large-scale assessments of student achievement in music, however, music educators in schools that accept funds face a considerable challenge in finding a way to measure student learning in their classrooms. From Australia to Taiwan to the Netherlands, music teachers experience similar struggles in the quest for a definitive assessment resource that can be used by both music educators and researchers. In this two-volume Handbook, contributors from across the globe come together to provide an authority on the assessment, measurement, and evaluation of student learning in music. The Handbook's first volume emphasizes international and theoretical perspectives on music education assessment in the major world regions. This volume also looks at technical aspects of measurement in music, and outlines situations where theoretical foundations can be applied to the development of tests in music. The Handbook's second volume offers a series of practical and US-focused approaches to music education assessment. Chapters address assessment in different types of US classrooms; how to assess specific skills or requirements; and how assessment can be used in tertiary and music teacher education classrooms. Together, both volumes of The Oxford Handbook of Assessment in Music Education pave the way forward for music educators and researchers in the field.

Castner developed this innovative perspective on geographic education through observation of the Orff-Schulwerk technique of music education. This pedagogical method provides an organizational framework within which the primitive elements and concepts of music can be introduced, experienced, and explored, and auditory discrimination developed. The process of improvisation is the focal point of the Schulwerk. Castner suggests that the numerous educational benefits of improvisation can be obtained in geographic education by the process of "mapping." He defines mapping as graphic description, analysis, and presentation in a problem-solving context. After more than two decades of research in cartographic communication, Castner concludes that success in examining and analysing landscapes, and images representative of them, is dependant upon developed skills in visual discrimination. Seeking New Horizons describes a rationale for linking basic visual discriminations to their logical extensions in the concepts that are fundamental to geographic thinking, thus providing challenging approaches to developing spatial awareness, graphic literacy, and geographic understanding. In addition, Castner identifies eight basic concepts which would allow students and teachers to work interactively with spatial information and, over time, with increasingly complex and sophisticated tools and at increasingly abstract levels of generalization.

Whether you are a pre-service, newly-hired, or veteran elementary general music teacher, Engaging Musical Practices: A Sourcebook on Elementary General Music offers a fresh perspective on topics that cut across all interactions with K-5th grade music learners. Chapter authors share their expertise and provide strategies, ideas, and resources to immediately apply their topics; guiding focus on inclusive, social, active, and musically-engaging elementary general music practices.

A step-by-step exploration of the three musical elements – rhythm, melody, and harmony – according to the Orff method.

(Schott). This book is intended for those who want detailed, practical assistance in how and why to use Orff techniques and materials in the classroom. Goals are outlined and the best ways to achieve them are explored, but the principal focus is on the arrangement of the curriculum in a logical sequence. Such a structure provides a reasonable progression from simple to more complex objectives not only from day to day but from year to year. Structured learning need not be the enemy of improvisation but rather the best way to provide students with the tools they need to improvise. The book contains an introduction to the development of Orff-Schulwerk and a discussion of the distinguishing features of this approach. Chapter Two introduces the activities children use in their music-making. The teaching procedure that structures those activities is taken up in Chapter Three while Chapter Four explains the vocabulary and accompaniment theory essential to the Orff teacher. Part Two applies these elements in a sequential curriculum designed for Grades One through Five. Especially important in each chapter is the inclusion of supporting activities designed to aid in teaching the various skills and concepts.

Compilation of successful lessons integrating social studies and literacy, using interactive learning.