Increasing Student Ownership in the General Music Classroom

Item

Title
Increasing Student Ownership in the General Music Classroom
Creator
Christiana Zollner
Project Type
Action Research Project
Date
6/1/2023
Abstract
How can a teacher increase student ownership in the music curriculum? This is the essential question guiding the action research in this paper. The elementary general music classroom can be uncomfortable when not all students feel musically inclined yet they are still required to attend class, participate, and be graded in their musical ability. On top of music class, many schools require the music teacher to put on a community performance where students sing for their families. While music can be one of the purest forms of self-expression, such conditions could cause students to feel forced into unwanted activities that do not express who they are.
Through using critical pedagogical techniques such as inviting students to form different aspects of their own music program, teachers can create a curriculum with their students that better represents who they are. Research has shown that when music is taught in more communal ways where students are given more choice as to how to participate or at what level, they are more successful in the music classroom.
For my research I invited students to contribute to their upcoming music program in a multitude of open-ended ways and journaled my classroom observations as well as collected data surrounding how many students elected to speak or solo at the concert, data on the varied ways that students contributed to the program, data on how students were feeling and what they were looking forward to, and how and when students were engaged. The data I collected will be a firm foundation from which to continue the work or continually getting ideas and feedback from students and implementing them into the curriculum to create a program that comes from the students.
Rights
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Language
eng
Type
Text