Philosophies of Music Education – MUSC 835

Course Description

This course emphasizes inquiry into the various philosophies of music education and the psychology of music. This includes social, structural, and psychological concerns of music learning and music making. Implications derived from cognition, assessment approaches, and metatopics of art, folk, and popular music will inform research that shapes the scholarly narrative of music education philosophies.

Rationale

It is vital that each student understand the various philosophies of music education. This course will assist each student in having a complete and thorough understanding of how to create an environment in which they can begin to apply the philosophical elements and practical building blocks of music education. The student will receive instruction on how to synthesize and apply his/her understanding of the social, structural, and psychological aspects of music learning and music making. This course will help the student attain a clearer awareness of the scholarly narrative of various music education philosophies, developing an understanding of cognition, assessment approaches, aesthetic elements and praxis as well as addressing how these ideas are impacted by biblical worldview.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (5)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will provide a thread in response to the assigned prompt for each Discussion. Each initial thread should be 250-500 words, and include at least 1 scholarly citation in Turabian Footnote/Bibliography format. In addition to the thread, the student must reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply should be 100-200 words and incorporate at least 1 scholarly citation in Turabian format.

Written Paper Assignments (2)

Written Paper: Three Philosophies Assignment

The student will complete a 5–10-page paper in Turabian format comparing and contrasting the philosophies of Hanslick, Meyer, and Tolstoy. The student will demonstrate his/her understanding of these views of the Aesthetic experience and how it impacts instructions in modern music education. The student will also include content from Chapters 3, 13, 18 and 23 of The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Music Education, Chapters 2 and 3 from The Struggle for the American Curriculum, and the article: Music, Thought and Feeling: Understanding the Psychology of Music in this assignment.

Written Paper: Music Education in Different Countries and Cultures Assignment

The student will complete a 5–10-page paper in Turabian format comparing and contrasting the philosophies and practices of music education in a different country/culture of his/her choosing. The student will demonstrate an understanding of these views of the philosophical experience in different cultures and how instruction is impacted in modern music education within this specific region of the world. The student will also include content from The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Music Education Chapters 6, 8, 10, and 15 as well as Social-Psychological advances in Music Education Chapter 4.

Editing Critique Assignment

Because feedback is an essential part of developing as a professional, the student will be placed in a scenario where he/she will edit one of his/her colleague’s papers. This imaginary peer, Norma L. Student, will act as the student's editing subject. These learning experiences are important for the student reviewer and will help the student develop expertise as the editor/reviewer of this assigned paper. By engaging his/her knowledge and skill as a musician and educator, the student will critique the sample, addressing issues surrounding relevant themes and concepts expressed within the body of the paper.

Annotated Journal/Magazine Articles Assignment

The student will identify 10 scholarly sources and complete 10 annotations (4-5 sentence summation/reviews of the material) for each source using the following: 

1. Five (5) magazine articles (at least three published within the last five years)
2. Five (5) journal articles (at least three published within the last five years)

Turabian format is to be followed.

Building on the materials studied about the foundations of music education, the student will prepare the outline to a position paper to include a title page, abstract, contents page, introduction, background of the development of music education, review of the philosophical, sociological, and psychological basis of music education (see below). In this way, the student will plan a basic overview of everything that he/she will be writing about in the Final Paper Assignment.

Final Paper Assignment

The student will prepare a 12–15-page position paper to include a title page, abstract, introduction, background of the development of music education, review of the philosophical, sociological, and psychological basis of music education. Then, the student will develop a detailed description of how these concepts would be applied in a given classroom teaching situation. This paper is to correspond with the PowerPoint assignment. The assignment must include at least 20 sources and will use footnote/bibliography style Turabian. The paper must be submitted as a Word document.

PowerPoint Assignment

The PowerPoint created should correspond with the Final Paper Assignment, and “unpack” the ideas and concepts expressed in the paper. The student will create a PowerPoint that uses slides with bullet points to outline the presentation. Various slides will be used to discuss the title, introduction, background of the development of music education, review of the philosophical, sociological, and psychological elements of music education, as well as defining the teaching plan describing the application of these ideas within the context of a classroom, and a bibliography. The PowerPoint should be approximately 10 slides long and include at least 20 sources. The assignment should be submitted in footnote/bibliography style in Turabian format.