Examines the tension between intuitive and analytical ways of making sense of the world by exploring musical knowledge and experience.

Appropriate as a supplemental text for all music education methods courses and a core text in music education curriculum. This text is intended to assist preservice and experienced teachers make thoughtful decisions regarding music teaching and learning that are essential to effective practice. It emphasizes contextual issues as well as matters specifically pertinent to the teaching of music in all school settings, and it provides the structural knowledge and seminal questions that need to be addressed in making good choices about what and how to teach in music.

The complexity of the various forms of knowledge and practices that are encountered by teachers, university lecturers, teacher trainers, student teachers, policy makers and researchers, demands careful thought and reflection. Professional Knowledge in Music Teacher Education focuses on how knowledge is understood, what theories are held and the related assumptions that are made about teachers and learners, as well as how theory and practice can be understood, with useful and imaginative connections made between the two in music teacher education. Internationally renowned contributors address a number of fundamental questions designed to take the reader to the heart of current debates around knowledge, practice, professionalism, and learning and teaching in music as well as considering how all these elements are influenced by economic, cultural and social forces. The book demonstrates how research can inform pedagogical approaches in music teacher education; methods, courses and field experiences, and prepare teachers for diverse learners from a range of educational settings. The book will appeal to those interested in the development of appropriate professional knowledge and pedagogic practices in music teacher education.

Introduction and Practical Guide to Music Education provides students with comprehensive yet foundational knowledge of the music education profession. The book contains researched best practices for teaching music and guides readers through practical exercises to help them discover their own unique teaching style and approach. The text begins with a chapter that asks readers why they are considering a career in music education and also reveals the qualities of an effective music teacher. Later chapters provide students with a brief history of music education in the United States, introductions to educational psychology, sociology, and child development, practical advice for developing sound and successful lesson plans, strategies for teaching different types of students, tips for job interviews, and more. Each chapter includes references and discussion questions, and select chapters also feature a list of recommended readings for further exploration and independent learning. With emphasis on research and practical application, Introduction and Practical Guide to Music Education is a supportive and valuable guide for any student interested in a career in music education. Accessible and complete, the text is ideal for music seminars, music profession survey courses, and introductory music education courses. Laura M. Dornberger serves on the music education faculty at the State University of New York at Fredonia where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in elementary general music, child development, and music education philosophy and assessment. She has taught PK-12th grade general/vocal music, directed children's choirs, performed professionally as a soprano, and taught private voice and piano lessons. She has led professional development workshops for teachers in Cork, Ireland. She serves as a scorer for the New York State Teacher Certification Examinations, and she is a guest speaker and clinician on effective interviewing techniques. Katherine M. Levy, Ph.D. , is head of the music education area at the State University of New York at Fredonia. She earned her master's and doctorate degrees in music education from the University of Iowa. She has experience teaching beginning, middle, and high school instrumental music in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin and early childhood music in Iowa and Maryland. Dr. Levy is the founding music director of two New Horizons Band programs in which university students and music teachers work with amateur musicians aged 50 and older in music lessons, ensembles, and concert bands.

This book addresses the gap between formal music education curricula and the knowledge and skills necessary to enter the professional music industry. It uses extensive data from a long-running research project where high school students were invited to start their own business venture, Youth Music Industries. Not only did this act as a business venture, but it also functioned as a learning environment informed by the concepts of Communities of Practice and social capital. Exploring how entrepreneurial qualities were developed, their learning was subsequently captured and distilled into a set of design principles: in this way, a pedagogical approach was developed that can be transferred across the creative industries more broadly. This book will be of interest and value to scholars of music education, as well as those preparing students for the creative industries.

Popular musicians acquire some or all of their skills and knowledge informally, outside school or university, and with little help from trained instrumental teachers. How do they go about this process? Despite the fact that popular music has recently entered formal music education, we have as yet a limited understanding of the learning practices adopted by its musicians. Nor do we know why so many popular musicians in the past turned away from music education, or how young popular musicians today are responding to it. Drawing on a series of interviews with musicians aged between fifteen and fifty, Lucy Green explores the nature of pop musicians' informal learning practices, attitudes and values, the extent to which these altered over the last forty years, and the experiences of the musicians in formal music education. Through a comparison of the characteristics of informal pop music learning with those of more formal music education, the book offers insights into how we might re-invigorate the musical involvement of the population. Could the creation of a teaching culture that recognizes and rewards aural imitation, improvisation and experimentation, as well as commitment and passion, encourage more people to make music? Since the hardback publication of this book in 2001, the author has explored many of its themes through practical work in school classrooms. Her follow-up book, Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy (2008) appears in the same Ashgate series.

In higher music education, learning in social settings (orchestras, choirs, bands, chamber music and so on) is prevalent, yet understanding of such learning rests heavily on the transmission of knowledge and skill from master to apprentice. This narrow view of learning trajectories pervades in both one-to-one and one-to-many contexts. This is surprising given the growing body of knowledge about the power of collaborative learning in general, underpinned by theoretical developments in educational psychology: the social dimensions of learning, situational learning and concepts of communities of learners. Collaborative Learning in Higher Music Education seeks to respond to the challenge of becoming more conscious of the creative and multiple dimensions of social interaction in learning music, in contexts ranging from interdisciplinary projects to one-to-one tuition, and not least in the contemporary context of rapid change in the cultural industries and higher education as a whole. It brings together theoretical papers and case studies of practice. Themes covered include collaborative creativity, communities of practice, peer-learning, co-teaching as co-learning, assessment and curriculum structures. Chapters illuminate reasons for enabling collaborative learning, and provide exemplars of innovative practice and designs for collaborative learning environments in higher music education. A central purpose of the book is to scaffold change, to help in meeting the rapid changes in society and to find constructive stepping stones or signposts for teachers and students.