Date of Award

12-2021

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Music Education (MME)

Department

Music

First Advisor

Dr. Brian Weidner

Abstract

Constructivism in music education can help teachers and students alike better their educational experience by working as a collaborative team. In the choral classroom, constructivist teaching establishes the teacher as the facilitator of learning rather than the “teacher as conductor.” Teachers help foster the musical-thinking of the ensemble. Students learn and retain information when teachers can support learners’ understanding of musical ideas and work within the student’s zone of proximal development. Through the use of teacher-guided questioning, cognitive apprenticeship, informal music-making, CMP, problem-solving, and Understanding by Design, students become active participants. Included are supplemental activities for the traditional choir classroom that give a sense of how to provide meaningful lessons to students through a constructivist lens. Each activity is objective-based, working from what the students will know or be able to do by the end of the activity, to how to foster the learning in a way that builds past experiences into new experiences.

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