Filtering by
- Resource Type: Text
Participants in this study were 20 students divided into four small groups in a 45-member high school band. The study took place during the regularly scheduled band class during one full class period for eight weeks, culminating in small group performances. Data were collected throughout the study via observation and audio- or video-recording of weekly group rehearsal, participant interviews, teacher interviews, and collection of student artifacts. Data were analyzed by creating a case study of each of the four groups to determine their working processes.
Cross-case analysis revealed themes common to the participant groups in these categories: navigation of the learning process, playing by ear, and student attitudes and perceptions of benefits and drawbacks of the project. Discussion of navigation of the learning process includes group members' methods of problem solving within a constructivist classroom environment. These methods included problem finding, strategizing, and responding, peer assessment and feedback, and teacher scaffolding; I also discuss how group dynamics played a major role in student's learning processes. While learning to play by ear, musical elements students addressed included pitch, division of parts, form, key and modality, intonation, instrumentation, dynamics, tempo, rhythm, improvisation, and range. Students' attitudes included enjoyment of most aspects of the project, and dislike or frustration with a few aspects. Benefits students perceived from participation in the project included increased ability to play by ear and increased confidence. Recommendations for music teachers and music teacher educators as well as suggestions for future research are provided.
Effective online learning strategies have become a much-debated topic with the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. Technological innovation has constantly been used to improve the education of students since its first use in the 1980s. Although online learning has been available to students in every single state in the US, along with a significant increase in online enrollment in virtual schools, teachers were simply not prepared for this sudden, immense transition. At the beginning of the pandemic, regardless of the preparedness and effectiveness of teachers across the country, time was not spent creating unique lessons to guide the education of our students, but it was instead spent rushing through quick and easy lesson plans. In order to better prepare for the future, this thesis will use a literature review of pedagogical practices and online learning, a survey of 52 ASU students, and the creation of the Online Learning Resource Hub (OLRH) in order to find the best approach to online learning for students in the 21st century.
This paper recommends amendments to the Montessori teaching system, which can in turn be adapted by individual educators or administrative school boards. The proposed tools mentioned in this paper follow the tenets of Constructivist teaching, which Montessori uses as some of its core teaching values (“Who and What is Montessori?”). Constructivist teaching argues that students learn best when they are able to apply their knowledge base to new learning experiences. The word comes from the idea that students are “constructing” their knowledge base one piece at a time, a process that starts from the ground, or base layer, and builds up from that. This construction involves physical representations of concepts, or guided experiences. Contrary to traditional, “top down” teaching, students learning through constructivist teaching get to experiment with learning concepts before a teacher explains the proper theory. These teachings try to generate excitement for the subject matter as extensions of students’ prior learning. Simulation and data visualization are powerful tools that allow students to discover the patterns present in natural processes by giving them the power to affect the environment and see the results. Implementation of the learning strategies of data visualizations and simulations should improve student performance and excitement in Earth and Space Science (ESS), while also being compliant with the Montessori teaching method.