Learner-Centered Teaching: Alternatives to the Established Norm

Since its early conceptions, scholars and practitioners have illuminated a variety of pedagogical methods for teaching music across a wide range of ensembles and spaces. In most cases, these have reflected a teacher-directed approach. This is evidenced across many areas of music teaching and learning, including elementary and secondary general music classrooms, beginning and secondary instrumental ensembles, and a variety of music theory and appreciation courses. The volume of method books and music literature continues to expand supporting this type of instruction as well. In the U.S., we have a rich history of ensemble teaching, with over one-hundred years since the inclusion of music in formalized school settings beginning with Lowell Mason in Boston in the late 1800’s.1 During these early years, teachers focused on proper breathing techniques, diction, and pitch development to improve singing in religious settings. During this time in U.S. culture, music instruction may have been most effective using a teacher- directed approach.

Learner-Centered Teaching: Alternatives to the Established Norm Chapter