Editor's Notes
Published in No. 183, Winter 2010
While drafting notes for this issue of the Bulletin, President Barack Obama released A Blueprint for Reform: The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (2010). The President's introductory statement reiterates the belief that "Every child in our country deserves a world-class education." The President's message is cognizant that:
This effort will require the skills and talents of many, but especially our nation's teachers, principals, and other school leaders. Our goal must be to have a great teacher in every classroom and a great principal in every school. We know that from the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents—it is the teacher standing at the front of the classroom. To ensure the success of our children, we must do better to recruit, develop, support, retain, and reward outstanding teachers in America's classrooms. (p.2)
In each of their own ways, the six articles that appear in this issue of the Bulletin promote discourse about the teacher's role in the music learning process:
"Because of the prevelance of talk in music classrooms, including mine, I believed that a study would be valuable in order to better understand not only what was being said, but also to comprehend our utterances' performativity within the context of our classroom." Teryl Dobbs in a reflective interrogation of her dissertation study on classroom discourse within an instrumental music setting.
"It is imperative to encourage pupils to use their own experiences to construct meaning that makes sense to them, rather than assimilating knowledge through a pre-prepared format." A recommendation derived from Stuart Button's questionnaire administered in the UK to educators after their first year of general music teaching.
"Instructor feedback was not any more effective than self-analysis in increasing music education majors' use of specific reinforcement. This is consistent with previous research suggesting that self-analysis may be a viable alternative to instructor feedback in teacher training settings." Jessica Napoles and Judy Bowers reached this conclusion after examining the effects two different feedback types on music education majors' use of specific reinforcement in choral music rehearsals.
"The need for more reflection time in the process of becoming a teacher educator is no real surprise, however it is difficult for music education programs to facilitate proper time and opportunities for PhD students to meet with faculty and one another to discuss issues of teacher education." Music Education Professor Colleen Conway, and then-PhD students John Eros, Kristen Pellegrino, and Chad West offer this recommendation in their self-study of undergraduate music teacher education.
"With over 200 citations each, The Journal for Research in Music Education, and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education account for 47% of the citations for the ten most cited journals and each appears in over half the chapters of the New Handbook." Clint Randles, Julie Hagen, Betty Anne Gottlieb, and Karen Salvador identify prevalent resources available for researchers investigating how music is learned and taught.
"In each domain (i.e. in the School of Music and in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction), the values, beliefs, and practices of the other may be considered outrageous, unimaginable, irrational, illogical, and unthinkable; they must be considered so if the inside values, priorities, and practices are to be maintained. Nevertheless, the end result is the same: music education is at the bottom of the heap, still worth less after all these years." Julia Koza continues to provide us with insight into policy and its' impact on our profession. I am using this forum to invite her to write an essay for the Bulletin about the implementation Blueprint for Reform.
Teryl Dobbs posed these questions in reference to her study, but I'll take the liberty of applying them to the Blueprint for Reform: "What does this mean for music education research? What is the greater conversation? I, for one, am looking forward to it."
