Philosophy of Music Education

Case's Teacher Licensure program seeks to develop Proactive Scholar-Practitioners. I think that this is a great way to dissect what it is that effective teachers are able to do.

Effective teachers are proactive. In contrast to reactive teachers, effective teachers are able to plan ahead to use their classroom time most efficiently. They work hard to seek out opportunities to improve themselves and their methods. They are able to stop problems before they start, and seize opportunities for enhanced learning from their first sparks of existence. Although effective teachers are not reactive, they do take part in the proactive process of reflection, to best analyze their progress and determine how to best tailor their instruction to contextual needs.

Effective teachers are scholars. Never content with their own education, they remain active learners in their fields. They ask questions, perform research, remain appraised of the literature in their field, and reflect on their findings.

Effective teachers are master practitioners. They are able to take their knowledge of their subject and of educational pedagogy and effectively implement it in a classroom setting. They are able to effectively communicate with students, and help those students grow intellectually and personally.

In my view, the centerpiece of a proactive scholar-practitioner's preparation is her teaching philosophy. It is upon her philosophy that each teacher bases her decisions of what to teach in her classroom. This includes curricular choices, method choices, classroom management choices, and even organizational or administrative choices.

I wrote my first philosophy of music education in the fall of 2002, and that document is included at the bottom of this page. While most of my core beliefs have remained the same since that time, I believe that I have gained greater depth of my understanding of what it means to lead a music classroom, and a greater level of specificity for my values.

I predict that my philosophy as a teacher will continue to progress in this way - while my core beliefs regarding what is valuable about music education are likely to remain the same, I will continue to broaden and deepen the scope of those beliefs, refining them with more experience, as well as letting them guide my experience.